New Beginning
by AnimeFreakk831
Summary: Uchiha Sasuke is back at home in Konoha trying to sleep when a familiar sounding moan awakens him from his sleep. Was that Sakura? Read to find out! Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **Hi guys! Just you know, your average beginner fanfic writer. Please review & criticism is welcome (just no downright hate please)! If this gets enough reviews, I'll actually add more chapters but as of now, this is just something I'm going to try out. SOO, if you want more please review! Hope I'm not too noobish but if so then oh well haha.

**Disclaimer: As much as I want to take them, all characters belong to Kishimoto.**

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He watched as wind rustled the trees, pale green leaves freed temporarily, only to find themselves stuck on the roof of the Uchiha manor-unable to move until another breeze emancipates them once again. He was all too similar to those leaves-freed after killing Itachi, but stuck once again after learning the truth of the Uchiha clan massacre.

_"I know everything there is to know about Itachi. Of course, he died without realizing just how much. You need to know about him... This man who risked everything to protect the shinobi world… The leaf village... And, most of all, his little brother. What happened on that night and your memories of him massacring the Uchiha clan are all real. He fled the village immediately after."_

_"Then why...?"_

_"All done on orders given to him by the Leaf's top brass. And that is where the truth about your brother begins. The Uchiha came together and started organizing a coup d'état… So the Leaf's leaders planted a spy amongst them. They chose your brother, Uchiha Itachi. And that's where his life went from ordinary to a living hell. Your father, Fugaku, was the mastermind behind the whole plan. And Itachi, on his orders, joined the ANBU as his spy. But in reality, it was the opposite. Itachi was sending information on the clan to the village. I believe the common term is double agent. You can't even begin to imagine the burden he had to carry."_

_"But why?! Why would Itachi betray the clan?"_

_"Someone who's never seen true war, such as yourself, may not be able to fully comprehend the answer. During the third ninja world war, Itachi, only four years old, witnessed countless people slaughtered in cold blood… The trauma turned Itachi into a boy who loathed war and strife, and only desired peace and a man who worked tirelessly to keep his village staff and stable… A man who refused to let fetters and familial ties interfere with his love for the village. The village leadership noticed this, and used it against him. He was assigned a top-secret mission… That mission was to wipe out the entire Uchiha clan. He would close the curtain on his clan's history with his own two hands. Itachi completed his mission quickly and efficiently. Except for one tiny detail. The one thing he failed to do… was kill his little brother. "_

Uchiha Sasuke stood in front of the Uchiha compound, onyx eyes void of emotion, the jet black hair framing his face ruffled and moving slightly in accordance to the breeze. The Uchiha compound stood in the moonlight, yet it never seemed darker than on this very night. The uneasiness building in his stomach increased the more he approached the door. He opened the door to his once called home and stepped in. The house was without a single spot of dust in the 4 years he'd been away. Seeing no dead corpses of his family members, he removed the pants held up by the stupid purple bow he always despised, followed by his shirt. He grabbed a towel and turned on the shower, streams of water rolling down his pale chiseled body. Steam flowed out of his bathroom and pooled around his feet as he left the shower. Finding pajamas in his fathers old dresser, he pulled them on and lay in what used to be his parents' bed. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, only to be plagued by nightmares.

_Sasuke found it unusual that he was almost to his house, yet not one of his uncles or aunts had stepped out and greeted him. In their stead was the silence. Complete and utter silence. Silence so bleak that one could hear the squeaking of mice in the garbage, yet not even they were making noise. Panic spiked within him, something's wrong. He ran home, kicking his shoes off in the doorway. He ran about the house calling out for someone -anyone-, but to no avail. He checked each and every room-nothing. Only one last room stood at the end of the hallway-his parents' bedroom. He slowed to a walk as he approached the door, his heart pounding in his ear. He slid the door open, and on the floor lay his parents in a distorted position, a pool of blood gathering from their heads and his beloved older brother standing among them, blood splattered on his clothes. The next instant Sasuke was slammed into the wall behind him, the words "Foolish little brother" playing repeatedly in his head like a broken record player.  
_

Sasuke awoke panting, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead and spilling onto the white bed sheets. He put his face into his hands, trying to calm himself. The panting finally stopped, and he looked at the clock, reading the time 3:37 AM before he decided to try and sleep again. After constant tossing and turning, Sasuke closed his eyes and finally began to doze off before a high-pitched and throaty moan sent his eyes flying open once again.

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Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note**_**: I changed a few details, again. If you don't reread this chapter you may get confused later on! I promise that these changing of details will stop, but this time it's essential. You don't need to read the whole chapter again, but just the last few parts where Sakura and Sai talk, all the way to the end.**_

_**P.S: I will be updating the next chapter today or tomorrow, so stay tuned!**_

**********Disclaimer: ****As much as I would like to take them from him, a**ll characters belong to Kishimoto.

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The sound wrenched him from his slumber and got Sasuke's gears turning. Who in the world would dare to perform such activities around the Uchiha manor, of all places? He waited to hear it again, but after hearing only silence, he decided to close his eyes again._ Hn. Maybe they left to do it properly at home_, Sasuke presumed. As the darkness began to encompass his vision, he heard it. Again. Now fully awake and agitated from being deprived of sleep, Sasuke got out of bed and walked outside towards the origin of the moan. He made his way to the front door of his house and stepped out into the night.

A single tall lamppost emanated a yellow light, lighting the street and trees in front of him. Sasuke looked around, but no one was to be seen. He decided to check the perimeter of his house, if they were going to keep him from sleeping, they need to leave and do it somewhere else. He had just began pondering what genjutsu to put them under when he rounded a corner and detected the silhouette of a couple. The man had the woman against the wall, her legs wrapped around his hips as he ground into her pelvis fervently. They made out hungrily, a thin line of saliva dripping from their mouths when the woman pulled away to moan loudly, eyes closed in pleasure. The man, from Sasuke's view, had pitch black hair similar to his own that reached an inch or two past his ear and a pale complexion. He wore black pants and a shirt that barely covered his chest, exposing his toned stomach completely. Sasuke activated his Sharingan to see the woman more clearly, and immediately recognized her. No other woman in Konoha had pink hair.

* * *

Sakura was on her way home after eating what Naruto calls dinner -or in other words, Ichiraku ramen. No, that's incorrect. He calls it breakfast, lunch and dinner. Eating ramen all the time was so unhealthy, she wondered if Naruto would ever break the habit. _I hope he gets a good wife, one that cooks for him and feeds him real food, not just ramen, _Sakura sighed, masking the sound of Sai's approach.

"Ugly", Sai greeted behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist, halting her movements to a stop.

"Sai, we've been together for five months now, you need to stop calling me ugly, you know damn well that I'm not." Sakura said, turning to wink at Sai, a glint of playfulness in her eyes.

"I chose that nickname because I knew that no one else would call you that, and that whenever you hear that, you'd think of me -and only me, even though I don't think you're ugly at all. But, I suppose I do need a new nickname for you, don't I?" Sai nonchalantly replied before pulling out a book with the title Common Nicknames Between Lovers and began flipping through the pages, eyes scanning the pages, searching for a title worthy of his girlfriend.

"N-no, S-sai, you don't have to find a new nickname for me, you could just call me by my name, like everyone else does." Said Sakura, not wanting to know what nicknames he'd choose for her and whether or not they would be worse than ugly.

"But I don't want to be 'like everyone else', my pink little dango." Sai countered, his face contorting into a true smile, a smile that he had begun to express over the years. The smile that Sakura loved so much. Before he could read any more of those cheesy nicknames from that irrelevant book of his, Sakura stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his.

Breaking away from the kiss before he could become addicted, he said "Sakura, let's go somewhere to eat. I know that you aren't satisfied from that ramen, you didn't even finish half of it." He had gotten used to asking her on dates in the time they'd been dating, and now he could ask her on a date without reading it directly from one of his books.

"Okay." Sakura agreed, feeling her stomach growl. Ichiraku Ramen was great without a doubt, but years of eating it practically everyday began to make her grow weary of it.

They found themselves at a new restaurant in town. It was a small restaurant with glass windows in the front. Small cream colored paper lanterns were strung along the ceiling both inside and outside the restaurant, the only source of light in the restaurant. Inside the restaurant were about 15 round tables with white tablecloth draped over them, a bouquet of white flowers in the middle, illuminated by a red candle in the middle. Sai and Sakura found a table to sit at and looked their menus over before ordering. Sai ordered momen tofu whereas Sakura, craving something sweet, ordered shiratama anmitsu. After eating, Sai paid for the meal and they left the restaurant, once again heading to her house.

They held hands as they walked, while Sakura rambled about how busy the hospital had been now that the war was over and how tired she was. She barely managed to slip out, only to be called upon by Naruto to eat dinner. Sai listened patiently, knowing that if he cut in, he'd be punched halfway across the village within milliseconds -and he read that it's polite to listen to ones girlfriend about their problems. He walked in silence, nodding once in a while to show he'd been listening.

She stopped walking and turned to face him. "Sai, why are you with me? I know I can be annoying and ramble a lot and I have bad anger issues, so why?"

Sai was taken aback by this question, and inquired, "Why do you ask?"

"I was told I am annoying, I have a big forehead, I have weird hair, I'm too hothea-" Sai silenced her by holding her face in his hands and kissing her roughly, Sakura's lips moving with his. He snaked his arms around her waist as he broke away from the kiss to look at her. Emeralds looked back at him expectantly, and guilt began to pool in his stomach.

He replied defensively, "You don't annoy me. You're beautiful inside and out, and you're a great kunoichi. Of course I'm with you. What man would be stupid enough to let you go?"

Sakura didn't reply. Sai realized who actually was stupid enough to let her go, and mentally kicked himself for indirectly bringing that up.

"That was his mistake." He said before kissing her again.

Their kiss grew more heated, and Sakura's arms were around his neck, fingers playing with the dark hair at the base. He swiped his tongue across her bottom lip and she allowed him entry, deepening the kiss. Their bodies moved closer together and he could feel her soft breasts pressing against his chest. Suddenly Sakura was pressed up against a wall, her legs wrapped around Sai's hips, his arousal pressing against her thigh causing her to moan in anticipation.

His mouth moved lower into the crook of her neck and he began sucking hungrily, Sakura moaning in surprise. He stopped his motions and looked at her with lust-filled eyes, pressed a finger to her lips and whispered, "We're in public remember?"

She nodded and pulled him back into the kiss. Noticing someones presence, he grunted and began to grind into her, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as she moved her hips in tandem with his. A corner of his mouth turned upward, and he began to move his hips faster, eliciting a moan from Sakura, who didn't notice the bystander watching them with glaring red eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors Note: Sorry if I kept you all waiting! Here's the new chapter! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: ****As much as I would like to take them from him, a**ll characters belong to Kishimoto. 

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With crimson red eyes Sasuke glared daggers at two, emitting a dangerous aura. Before he could stop himself, he was in between them. Sakura fell onto her butt from the loss of leverage that was being provided by Sai. Sai and Sasuke stood before each other glowering, Sai surprisingly silent.

"Sasuke?" Sakura asked quietly from behind him, hesitance evident in her voice.

"Against the outside of my house at almost four o'clock in the morning is not the proper place nor time for that. I suggest you two leave," Sasuke ground out with his jaw clenched.

Sakura nodded before realizing that Sasuke couldn't see her and instead made her way around him and walked to Sai. Sakura took Sai's forearm and led him home, a dark shade of pink tinting her cheeks. From embarrassment or the cold night air, Sasuke didn't know. He watched until they were out of his sight, anger still emanating from him. Once they were gone, he turned and made his way back into his house and into his bed, chasing the sleep that eluded him ever so irritatingly.

He couldn't sleep. Sasuke had never thought that Sakura would be one to dry hump a man - much less dry hump Sai _right_ outside of his house, of all the places the could have ended up! And they _knew _he was going to try sleeping at the Uchiha compound tonight, he had told them just that afternoon. Did they do it on purpose? _No_, he thought, _Sakura was too embarrassed for it to have been on purpose._

_Why were they even out this late at night?_ Sasuke thought before realizing that she must have had a late shift at the hospital and was probably on her way home. The reconstruction of Konoha had definitely taken a toll on them both. Sakura at the hospital and Sasuke at the Konoha Police Station, following his fathers' footsteps.

Secondly, _Sai? _He never expected her to be with him, of all people, and even recalled him calling her ugly during their last mission the other day. _Exactly how long have they been together? _Sasuke pondered irritably. Sakura wouldn't be that fast paced if the two has just hooked up the other day- no, they must have been together for a while, Sasuke realized.

How had he not noticed this in the time that he spent with the team? There weren't any random displays of affection during missions, so Sasuke never would have guessed that she was dating him. Not that he was jealous, he just believed she would be smart enough to know that relationships only bring more stress upon a shinobi. Especially one of her skill, with healing powers, chakra control and monstrous strength surpassing even that of the Slug Princess and Godaime Hokage, Senju Tsunade.

Sasuke looked at the clock reading 4:30 A.M and decided that he'd been awake for long enough. He tossed in bed and closed his eyes before drifting into sleep, the last of his thoughts including pink cotton candy and emerald jewels.

* * *

Sakura and Sai walked in silence toward her apartment, the awkwardness of being caught still fresh and plaguing them the whole way home. Sakura was still flushed with embarrassment, wondering how long had Sasuke been there watching them as she walked up the steps to her door.

_He was supposed to be asleep, why was he even awake?_ Sakura wondered. Panic and a tinge of guilt spiked through her as she thought, _What if I was so loud that we woke him up? But still, why did he seem so furious?_

She and Sai made it up the steps, and Sakura turned to face him.

"I'm sorry about that," Sakura said.

"It's not your fault," said Sai, "If only the raven's ass hadn't interrupted us."

Sakura wanted to defend Sasuke, knowing that they had woken him from his sleep but bit her lip to stop herself from speaking, knowing that it would not be good for her to be defending another man.

She unlocked her apartment door and moved to kiss Sai goodnight but was instead pushed into her apartment and onto her bed before Sai's lips met hers in a lust-filled kiss. He straddled her as he worked his way down the column her neck, licking her collarbone as she traced the outlines of the muscles in his arms. He made a motion to remove her shirt when Sakura stopped him, all traces of lust withdrawn as she looked at him, jade orbs filled with uncertainty.

"I'm sorry Sai, I don't think I'm ready to go that far just yet," Said Sakura apologetically, glancing at his erect penis.

"No, it's fine if you're not ready yet," Sighed Sai. He got up off of her, planted a swift kiss on her forehead before murmuring goodnight and disappearing out of her apartment and into the night.

* * *

Sunlight pierced through his curtains, alerting Sasuke that it was late in the morning, if it was morning at all. He glanced at the clock which read 12:27 P.M and remembered that he, Naruto, Sakura, Sai and Kakashi were supposed to report to the hokage at 7:30 A.M. Still, he made no effort to rush, knowing that Kakashi most likely hasn't even arrived yet and probably "got lost on the road of life" like always. Rummaging through the luggage he brought from his old apartment, he slid on a black long sleeved shirt with a red swirl on both of his biceps. On top of the shirt he wore a green jounin vest and chose to wear black pants. He sighed heavily and set out to meet the team, closing the door to the Uchiha manor behind him.

* * *

Naruto, Sakura and Sai waited in front of the Hokage residence, waiting for not just one member of the team, but two. Sakura couldn't look Sai in the eye after turning him down yet again last night, and decided to just look at the floor and fiddle with her thumbs. Sai was the only one sitting on the ground, sketching something in his book, eyes never once leaving his paper, even when Sakura had just arrived. On top of that, both had been completely quiet since they arrived at 8. Naruto observed the two through cobalt blue eyes, inferring that something was up between the two. He shifted towards Sakura and was just about to ask her what was wrong when he noted the arrival of their raven-haired teammate. **  
**

"Oi teme, you look like a soggy bowl of cup ramen. What happened to you?" Naruto inquired, and Sakura's cheeks burned red because she already knew the answer to his question.

"I couldn't sleep last night..." Sasuke paused, unsure if Naruto was aware of Sakura and Sai's relationship, "... noises were keeping me up"

"What kind of-" Naruto began as their late-as-usual master appeared, his Icha Icha Paradise book still in the same place it always was- in his right hand and directly in front of his face- as he approached them, wearing the same outfit as always.

"Yo. Sorry I'm late, you see there was this little girl that lost her ball and I couldn't find it so I had to buy her another one but a black cat crossed my path and there was this lady-" Kakashi rambled before looking up from his perverted book and realizing the other three were already inside the building. He jogged to catch up with them, chuckling at their impatience and lack of tolerance for his excuses.

The team stood in front of the Slug Princess and took in her usual tell-tale signs of sleep, a reversed stamp imprinted on the side of her forehead and a dried trail of drool trailing down her chin. All these years and her habits still haven't changed.

"I have no missions for you today, you all can take the day off." She announced with her brows furrowed while waving them away.

The door to her office closed behind them, and though they walked further from her office, they could still hear Tsunade yelling at Shizune demanding for warm sake, and Shizune telling her to get all of her work done first. The yelling soon faded as they exited the buidling, and each member of the team faced each other, wondering what to do next.

"What now?" Naruto wondered.

Sakura perked up, realizing she was running out of groceries at home, and the whole team hasn't eaten a decent meal in a while, she came up with an idea.

"Ne, why don't you all meet at my apartment later and I'll cook dinner for all of us?" Sakura suggested, hoping to eradicate the awkwardness between her, Sai and Sasuke.

"Sounds like a good idea." reasoned Kakashi.

"Can you cook ramen? Pleaasee Sakura-chan?" Naruto urged, blue puppy dog eyes pleading Sakura all the while.

"Baka!" Chastised Sakura as she smacked the back of his head, "You need to eat real food once in a while, not just ramen, ramen, ramen!"

"Ow, that hurt Sakura-chan! It's no fair that you don't hit Sai now that you two are dating!"

Sakura ignored the comment and turned her attention from Naruto to the other three men watching her, amusement evident in each of their eyes.

"Okay! So at 8 o'clock tonight, be at my house and we can all eat dinner together." Sakura declared.

"Later." Kakashi said before forming a seal and disappearing, a poof of smoke replacing his body.

"Aa." Sasuke replied, relieved that he didn't have to cook dinner tonight.

Sakura, slightly shocked at his acceptance of her dinner invitation, nodded her head before taking Sai's arm and dragging him towards the nearest marketplace. The two walked from stand to stand gathering ingredients she would need for dinner while Sasuke walked opposite them, buying groceries and cleaning supplies for his house. Just because he wasn't cooking didn't mean he couldn't gather some things. Across from him he could see Sakura and Sai talking, her regular expression contorting into a smile and her bubbly laughter filling the air.

_Hn. The pansy has a sense of humor? _Sasuke remarked bitterly. A foreign feeling plagued Sasuke at the sight of Sakura laughing with Sai and holding his hand as they walked. Sakura stopped in her tracks, giving Sai a chaste kiss. She pulled away to continue walking but Sai wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back into a kiss. Sasuke turned and walked away, suddenly feeling angry. He needed to train. Maybe burn down some trees and knock the dobe around.

As Sasuke left, Sai smirked into the kiss and pulled away before asking, "Are you ready to start cooking?"

* * *

Naruto was surprised when an angry Sasuke showed up at his doorstep, demanding to spar. Having nothing else to do, he agreed and the two found themselves at the old team 7 training grounds, standing across from each other. Without a word, Sasuke charged at Naruto bringing his fist to Naruto's stomach. Naruto used this moment to swipe at Sasuke, who dodged his punch and sweep kicked him, knocking him onto his butt. Sasuke backed away to do his katon when three shurikens flew past him, each slicing through his clothing and cutting him. Both took out a kunai and charged at each other, kunais and shurikens clashing.

Hours later, the two lay on the grass panting as the sun began to set in the horizon.

Sweat trickled down their faces as Naruto spoke, "So why did you feel the sudden need to spar?"

"Nothing."

"You seemed.. mad. Even more than usual." Observed Naruto

"It's nothing."

"I don't think it's nothing,"

"Hn."

"TELL ME WHY YOU WERE MAD, DAMMIT!"

"WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE WHEN SHE-"

"She?" Naruto asked with his eyebrows raised, all traces of anger replaced with curiosity.

"Shut up, dobe." Sasuke said.

Sasuke stood up and left before Naruto could ask him any further questions.

* * *

Sakura settled for cooking barbecue, knowing that no one from the team objected meat. On the side she stir-fried some vegetables, knowing that it's unhealthy to eat only meat and rice for dinner. Sai was already there at her apartment sitting at the table, waiting for the arrival of the rest of the team. She was just about to sit down when she heard a light knock on the door.

She opened the door, revealing a battered Sasuke. The sleeves of his shirt were messily torn, revealing bloody cuts and slashes down the length of his muscular arms. Sakura inhaled sharply.

He opened his mouth to speak, "Sakura, can you heal me?"

"What happened?" She allowed him in, motioning for him to sit down at the table so she could heal him.

"Naruto and I sparred, that's all."

Nodding, Sakura moved closer to him and put her hands on his arm. Green light began to emit from her hands and the scars turned from an angry red color to a pale neutral color the same as his skin tone. On to the other arm. Sakura itched to run her hands down his arms, his muscles begging her to touch them. Instead she kept her hands limited to the places where kunai or shuriken had cut him.

Once she was done with his arms, she looked him over and noticed a cut on his right cheek. Without thinking, she lifted a hand to touch his face. Sitting aside from them, Sai had a complete view of what Sakura was doing. Sai narrowed his eyes, watching Sasuke's reaction. Sasuke tensed at the contact but relaxed as the burning sting in his cheek was soothed. Sakura and Sasuke's eyes met for a second before a rambunctious blonde came crashing through her door.

"SAKURA-CHANN! THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH TEME! I THINK HE'S HAVING GIRL PROBLEMS!" Yelled Naruto as he blundered into her apartment, immediately noticing Sasuke and Sakura.

"What are you doing here teme? Why does Sakura-chan have her hand on your face?" Naruto scratched the back of his head.

Sakura removed her hand from Sasuke's face and replied,"I'm just healing him, and it looks like you need healing too"

She sat Naruto down in a chair and began tending to his wounds.

"So, girl problems Sasuke? Who's the girl?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Hn. No one." Sasuke looked away, hiding the light blush that tainted his cheeks.

Deciding not to pry any further, Sakura stayed quiet. After healing Naruto, she stood up and took a seat next to Sai, with Naruto on her right. Kakashi finally arrived, thankfully only a few minutes late as opposed to his usual two or three hours. He sat in between Sasuke and Sai, and everyone muttered itadakimasu before they began to eat.

"This is great Sakura-chan! Imagine if Chouji were here!" Naruto commented, knowing how much Chouji loved barbecue.

"Thank you Naruto" Sakura smiled.

"I think you'd make a great wife," said Kakashi.

"Thank you Kakashi-sensei,"

Sakura then began to ramble about the hospital and the crazy patients that she's had to deal with. Working at the hospital was constantly testing her patience. One of her male patients had grabbed her rump while she was taking his blood pressure. She wanted nothing more than to pummel him into the ground. But since he was an elderly patient who was paralyzed from the waist down, she figured she might as well let it go. The poor man wasn't even able to use his hips and pelvis. A few more stories about her patients and Sakura's guests had finished eating. Sasuke, Kakashi and Naruto thanked Sakura for the meal and left.

Once the three were gone, Sakura set to clean her apartment. Sai offered to wash the dishes, to which Sakura thanked him, grateful for his help. He did so, not saying a word. Sakura noticed that Sai had been unusually quiet today. He never spoke out, calling Naruto dickless and Sasuke a traitor or remarking on how the two should "engage in coitus" to let out all their pent up tension. Sakura's eyebrows tensed together as she wondered what could be wrong. She straightened up the chairs at her kitchen table as Sai came up behind her.

"Sakura, we need to talk." He breathed into her ear.

"Yes?"

Sai turned her around to face him, coal orbs meeting jade.

"I think it's time that we break up."


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Note: Sorry I took so long to update! Here's the new chapter!**

**Disclaimer:As much as I would like to take them from him, all characters belong to Kishimoto.**

* * *

_"I think it's time that we break up."_

Sakura walked to her light orange couch and slumped into it, burying her face in her hands. He just broke it off and left. Not a single word after, and he left so quickly that by the time she made a sound to speak, he was out the door.

_What did I do wrong?_ Sakura asked herself. _I guess I really am annoying. He's such a good actor, that jackass. He made me think he really loves me and just leaves like that. He probably just wanted to get into my pants. That asshole...I need a drink._

Sakura decided to stop by and grab a few drinks at a new bar in town that opened just down the street from her apartment. She removed her apron and hung it on a chair before she walked into her room to change her clothes. She wore the usual red shirt and pink skirt, knowing that any situation could turn ugly, and a dress would only hinder her movements and possibly get her killed. Although, it did provide a nice little distraction if she didn't wear her usual shorts under.

Once, on a mission, she had been bathing with her undergarments on in a river when a man she was assigned to capture just happened to come by to watch the show. He approached her and asked if he could bring her home and pound her into oblivion.

In the end their roles were reversed, as he was the one pounded into oblivion and she was the one bringing him home. _Perverts, _she chuckled to herself as she slipped on her shoes. Finally ready, she grabbed her apartment keys and locked the door on the way out.

The bar came into view in the moonlight, with wood stained a dark brown and a single long horizontal window on Sakura's left. Sakura pushed the black door open and stepped in. Dim lights illuminated the tables, and the long marble island was illuminated with a bright neon blue light.

Sitting on one of the stools at the bar was a woman with boobs as big as melons and light blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail who was bringing a glass of sake to her lips. Sakura walked over and sat on the stool next to her master.

Tsunade turned to squint at Sakura ,"Sakura? What are you doing here? You usually don't drink."

"I just felt like getting a few drinks tonight," Sakura replied.

"Something's up. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Sakura explained, "Sai just broke up with me, that's all."

"... I see. This is why I don't date. Most men are stupid and don't use their head to think. Well, not the head above their shoulders at least."

"Shishou!" Sakura shook her head.

"It's true! They just want to get into your pants. Have you and Sai have sex yet?"

"... No... Actually, I just denied him last night.."

"See! That's why he broke up with you. Damn men. This is why I have a really wonderful collection of vibrators instead of a history of men. With _vibrators,_ you can get different types and if one wears out, you can always have it replaced! Would you like to borrow one of mine?"

"N-no, it's okay." Sakura stammered, grossed out by the image of her master sprawled on the bed naked with her legs spread open and inserting a vibrator into her vagina.

"If you insist.. One more bottle of sake and another glass over here!" Tsunade waved to the bartender.

The bartender gave them another bottle and Tsunade poured Sakura a glass.

"I know you must be hurt right now so you're relieved of your duties at the hospital tomorrow."

"Arigatou." Sakura thanked her after downing a glass of sake without wincing like others do.

"Yosh! That's the way to go! I've taught you well," Tsunade marveled at Sakura's drinking before downing a glass herself.

"TSUNADE-SAMA!" Shizune blasted through the door of the bar with a pile of books and paperwork in her arms, stacked all the way up to her shoulders. Kotetsu and Izumo followed suit, also carrying loads of paperwork in their arms.

"Damn. They found me," Tsunade cursed.

Sakura giggled as she watched the Hokage being dragged out of the bar by Shizune, Kotetsu and Izumo. Sakura continued to drink and the edges of her vision began to blur more with each glass. Glasses later, Sakura laid her head down on the island, and her vision blacked out.

* * *

Sasuke was just about to lay down in bed when he heard knocking on his front door. He strode towards the door and opened it, revealing a panting man he did not know. Sasuke waited for him to speak.

"Sorry to bother you, but one of your teammates has passed out at our bar."

"Which?"

"The woman with pink hair."

"Have you tried to wake her up?" _Dumbasses, _thought Sasuke.

"Yes... You see, we tried to wake her up but she punched one of our workers through a wall. Since you're her teammate, could you.. maybe... you know... retrieve her before she causes anymore damage?" The man asked hesitantly.

"Hn. Irresponsible." Sasuke muttered under his breath before proceeding to follow the man to the bar.

* * *

Upon arrival at the bar, Sasuke immediately understood why the bartender had to call him in to retrieve Sakura. He shook her shoulder once and met her fist instead of her emerald green eyes.

He backed up and narrowed his eyes at the sleeping mess on the floor of the bar. This was a very sensitive case. He tried twice more to wake her up by nudging her but both attempts failed and Sasuke would have been punched yet again if it weren't for his quick reflexes.

Slightly irritated, Sasuke opened his mouth to ask for a glass of water before he stopped. No. That wouldn't be a good idea. Although it would successfully wake her up, her anger afterwards was not something Sasuke had enough energy to deal with tonight.

He maneuvered around Sakura and met her sleeping face. He used his fingers to open one of her eyelids and the arm that moved to hit him instantly fell limp. She was already trapped under his genjutsu.

He turned with his back facing her and knelt down. Sasuke pulled Sakura up using her arms and hoisted her onto his back. He felt her breasts and stomach press against his back as her arms wrapped themselves around his neck, almost suffocating him. Holding her up by the backs of her legs, Sasuke began to walk towards her apartment with Sakura's head bobbing against his shoulder with each step he took.

"Mmmphrngrph" Sakura mumbled against Sasuke's back.

"Sai...phrngthrngm...bastard" Sakura lightly hit him, thinking he was Sai.

Sasuke chuckled inwardly at Sakura insulting her boyfriend.

"How dare you...break up... with...me..." Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

_Sai_ broke up with _her_? Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? Anger began to build within Sasuke. So _that's _why Sakura decided to go out and drink. Hn. He knew Sai was a dumbass all along. Because of him, Sakura could have been taken advantage of or even taken. Then again, Sakura was smarter than to resort to drinking. Still. She was in pain because of him.

Sasuke arrived at her apartment door and unlocked it using her keys. He walked into her room, noting the sweet but faint scent of strawberries and laid her down on her bed, covering her with a blanket. He turned to leave when she tossed in bed and whimpered.

He looked at her and noticed the rapid movement of her eyes under her eyelids. Concluding that she might be having a nightmare, he sat next to her and patted her leg the way his mother used to when he was little. After a few minutes of this Sakura began to calm down again, and she sighed with content.

Sasuke observed her as he slowly rose from her bed. Her cotton candy pink hair was splayed across the bed, spreading in all directions. Noticing a stray hair covering her face, Sasuke moved it back behind her ear. His eyes trailed down her face, pausing at her plump pink lips. She looked so peaceful, like she hadn't just been broken up with. Like Sai hadn't caused her enough pain for her to get drunk and pass out at a bar. He walked out of Sakura's room.

_Tch. I guess I shouldn't be one to talk_, Sasuke thought as he remembered the night he left her unconscious on a bench. The night he left her. _No,_ he thought, _I didn't leave **her**__. I chose a different path. It just required me to leave, momentarily._

He locked the door to her apartment and closed it gently behind him.

_Never again,_ he thought.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: This chapter might be a little boring, but bear with me! Drama will be coming soon!**

**Disclaimer:As much as I would like to take them from him, all characters belong to Kishimoto.**

* * *

Sakura yawned, stretching her arms above her head. Eyes fluttered open and she was in her bed, in her room, nothing different from how she left it last night before she went out. The only difference was her pounding headache. Her stomach began to growl and she kicked off her blankets before walking into her kitchen to make herself breakfast. Opening her fridge, she decided to make something simple and grabbed an egg and a tomato. In a bowl she cracked her eggs, discarding the shells in the trash. She pulled out a cutting board and knife and was about to dice the tomato when her eyebrows scrunched together in thought.

_Wait a second, how did I get home?_

The last thing she remembered was Tsunade being dragged out of the bar by Shizune, then everything went black. She put down the knife and ran around her apartment, looking for clues as to how she got home. Finding nothing, she ran into her bathroom and examined her neck in the mirror. Seeing nothing on her pale neck, she pulled down her skirt and checked her underwear. Nothing. She exhaled in relief. So far, there were no signs that she came home with a man last night.

Calming down, she walked back into her kitchen to finish cooking. _I'll just stop by the bar later and ask them,_ Sakura decided while dicing the tomato. She mixed the egg and tomatoes and poured the mixture into her frying pan. Once the omelette was thoroughly cooked, she spooned it onto her plate and began to eat. _I wish I had some aspirin. _The food definitely helped, but she still had a throbbing headache. After finishing her food, she decided to scrub her floors and take a shower, seeing as it was 10:30 and the bar doesn't open until one o'clock

Two hours later, she stepped out of her shower, excess steam spilling out of her bathroom as she walked into her room to get dressed. She wore black pants along with her jounin vest, chuckling at herself in the mirror. She usually wore this outfit when going on missions, but she rarely goes on anymore since she became head medic at the hospital. With half an hour left until the bar opened, she decided to start walking there now.

She grabbed her keys and opened her front door to step out. The sun shone brightly against the light blue sky and she would have fallen down the steps to her if she hadn't averted her eyes to the floor, noticing a small basket on her doorstep. She picked it up and set it on her kitchen table. From it she pulled out three items, a bottle of painkillers, a bowl of something, and a container of tea leaves.

Sakura picked up the bowl first and opened it, revealing soup. She inspected it for poison, sniffing the concoction and placing a glowing hand over it. Finding no sign of the soup being poisoned, Sakura lifted the bowl to her lips and took a sip. The sip turned into multiple sips and eventually she was holding the bowl upright over her head, emptying the bowl of its contents.

She detached the bowl from her mouth and set it down on the table. Her hand reached for the bottle of painkillers and from it she took one out and filled a cup with hot water. She broke the pill and dropped it into the water, observing the color of the water and its smell. The water turned a milky white and emitted no scent, noting Sakura that it was a regular pill. She took two new pills from the bottle and a new cup of water. The pills were swallowed with ease and the headache she had immediately began to ebb away. Medicine that worked as quickly and efficiently as this could only be from her shishou. But if Tsunade brought her this medicine, did she bring her home too?

Now even more curious as to who brought her home, she got up from her table and walked out of her apartment, locking it behind her.

* * *

Sasuke fell asleep instantly that night, waking to a knocking at his door. Still he kept his eyes closed, willing whoever was knocking at his door to go away. Five minutes passed and the knocking was still ever so present, not wavering in the slightest. Sighing heavily, Sasuke rose from his bed to answer whoever was knocking. He trudged towards his front door and opened it, not caring to fix his hair before facing the person opposite the door.

Sasuke's eyes met with a single dark eye, the other eye hidden behind a black cloth that covered two-thirds of the mans face.

"Yo", Kakashi said with a small wave.

"Kakashi", Sasuke acknowledged him, stepping aside to let the grey-haired man in.

Kakashi stepped inside and spoke, "So, rumor has is that you took Sakura home to her apartment last night."

Wanting to see where Kakashi was going with this, Sasuke remained silent.

"I don't know how you plan on achieving your goal of rebuilding your clan, but I do hope that you don't plan to rebuild your clan by taking advantage of drunken women who are currently in relationships, much less your very own teammate."

Take advantage of Sakura when she was drunk? Sasuke had half a mind to hit Kakashi in the head for even accusing him of doing something so preposterous.

"Hn. First of all, I didn't take advantage of her. She was irresponsible and passed out at a bar, from which I had to retrieve her before she caused anymore damage to the property."

Kakashi remained silent.

"Second, Sakura is no longer in a relationship."

One grey eyebrow raised at this information, "Oh?"

"Sai broke up with her. Lastly, I don't plan to rebuild the clan by having children from different women. I plan to have only one woman by my side."

_Interesting,_ Kakashi mused.

"Go on, do you have a certain woman in mind for this role?"

Sasuke said nothing and looked away, avoiding his sensei's eyes.

"I see. Well, Sasuke, you better get going before all the good ones have been taken. You see, the Hokage is _ever_ so concerned about the prospering of your clan. Hardly any women desire you anymore, and their desire has been replaced with fear. If anything, I can't see any woman outside of Konoha being willing to rebuild your clan and spend the rest of their life with you."

"Careful Kakashi, you're treading on sensitive ground." Sasuke warned, grinding his teeth together. He was _not_ going to let Kakashi come into his home and tell him what to do.

"I'm just saying, it's time to get going" Kakashi advised before patting Sasuke on the back and leaving.

Sasuke's fists clenched. He _knew_ that he needed to start looking for a woman to rebuild his clan with. He didn't need _Kakashi_ to tell him to get a move on. However, the fact that even the Hokage is worried about his ability to rebuild his own clan bothered him. A sudden desperation awoke within him. If he didn't find anyone he was willing to rebuild his clan with, he would have to settle for rebuilding a clan with a random woman, and that would be bad for his children.

He listed all the girls that he knew in Konoha, knowing that the ones he knew are the only ones he had a shot with. TenTen -no, she has a thing for Lee.. Hinata- no.. she has a thing for Naruto. Ino- no, she and Shikamaru are together. Karin... Sasuke shuddered. She was definitely a last resort, she was _too _forward with her feelings. Who else? There had to be someone else.

Knocking was once again heard at his door, and he opened it, seeing the last girl in Konoha that he had a shot with. Sakura.

* * *

Sakura arrived at the bar the exact moment it opened. Suddenly her fist felt sore as she noticed a huge gaping hole in the wall opposite where she sat last night. She walked into the bar, and immediately saw the bartender from last night. The bartender seemed to notice her too, and for some reason began to look nervous as she closed the distance between them.

"Hi," Sakura smiled sweetly.

"H-hello," the bartender replied, " Come to drink some more?"

"No, thanks" Sakura ansewred, "I came to ask how I got home last night."

"Oh... You see, you fell asleep and we tried to wake you up, but you ended up punching one of our staff through that wall there." The bartender motioned at the hole in the wall.

Sakura's eyes widened in shock and guilt, "I"m so sorry! I can heal him or her if they're still around! And I'll pay for all the damage as well." Sakura offered.

"No need for that," the bartender explained, "your teammate already took care of that for you before he brought you home."

"My teammate?" Sakura asked, bewildered.

"Yes, the one that killed his own brother."

_Sasuke? _Sakura's face contorted into one of confusion and shock.

Misinterpreting this confusion, the bartender further explained, "The one with dark black hair, it sticks out in the back... You used to be obsessed with him.."

"I know who you're talking about!" Sakura snapped.

"Oh.. I'm sorry.. I just thought-"

"It's fine" Sakura interrupted, "So _he_ brought me home last night? You're sure of this?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"That'll be all then. Thanks for your help."

With that, Sakura walked off towards Sasuke's house._ I can't believe **Sasuke** was the one that brought me home.. **And** he paid for all the damage I caused. _Sakura paused in her tracks, head tilted in thought. _Was he the one who left that basket of things to help with a hangover? _Even more curious than before she knew who brought her home, she proceeded to walk to Sasuke's house.

* * *

Upon arrival at the Uchiha compound, she decided she was going to repay him. She wasn't a damsel in distress anymore. She could very well take care of herself. She'd spent two years by herself while he was off training with Orochimaru and Naruto was off with Jiraiya. She walked up to Sasuke's door and knocked. The door opened and Sakura saw Sasuke, who looked like he had just woken up. His hair was disheveled and he was still wearing his sleeping clothes, a tight tank top that hugged his torso and black sweats. He had just woken up and yet he still managed to look _unbelievably sexy_.

Sakura was pulled from her thoughts as Sasuke spoke, "Sakura."

She shook her head, trying to cleanse her mind of her previous thoughts and began, "Good morning Sasuke"

Sasuke sighed, "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to ask if you were the one who brought me home last night?", Sakura asked hesitantly.

"... Aa."

"And you paid for the damage I caused?"

Sasuke remained silent, looking at the floor with mock interest.

Taking this as a yes, Sakura thanked him, "Arigatou."

"Hn"

Taking this to be the end of the awkward conversation, Sakura turned to leave.

"I suppose the medicine worked?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura faced him with wide eyes, "You gave me the medicine? I thought it was Tsunade-sama..."

"Hn. Believe what you want."

"I believe you.. I'm just shocked." Sakura admitted before adding, "I promise I'll pay you back. The money I make from working at the hospital is definitely enough to cover the expenses."

"Don't. There's no need to." Sasuke said, waving it off.

"... Why did you do it? You could have just left me there or told Naruto to get me.. so why?"

Charcoal eyes met Sakura's and he spoke, "Just.. take care of yourself, Sakura."

And with that he closed the door.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed! Please review if you liked it or if you think there's something I'm lacking in. Constructive criticism is always accepted! **

**P.S: I will mostly be updating every week on either Saturday, Sunday or Monday because those are the days I have the most time.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry this took soo long! I got really busy with school and Thanksgiving weekend and it was all hectic and stuff. To make up for it, I think this chapter is actually somewhat decent lol. And it's longer. Anyways, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer:As much as I would like to take them from him, all characters belong to Kishimoto.**

* * *

Sakura stomped down the street past Ichiraku towards her place. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

_Take care of myself? Of course I'm going to take care of myself, who does he think I am? I'm not the same as I was before. I can look after myself now, I'm not the damsel in distress that always needed help like before. Who does he think he is, underestimating me like that. I'll have you know that I can break the ground beneath you and it spreads to have more than a one hundred meter diameter, shannaro! _

She fumed, purple-green veins popping out at the corners of her forehead. The steps to her apartment came into her view as she turned the corner, and she swore she heard her name being called in the distance. Choosing to ignore it, she walked up her steps and faced her door, still fussing about Sasuke's comment.

As she pushed the key into the keyhole and turned the doorknob, she realized, _If he was doubting my ability to take care of myself, why did he have that look on his face? _She recalled the look in his eyes as he told her to take care. To someone who didn't know him very well, they wouldn't have noticed any difference. But Sakura did know him, and she saw something in his eyes, something that actually looked like _concern. _

_That's not possible, _Sakura told herself as she shook her head. _He only cares if I'm gravely injured,_ she thought. She turned the door and let herself in. She had just pushed the door closed when knocking resounded from it. Opening it, purple flooded Sakura's vision, and long platinum-blonde hair came rushing at her.

"Sakura! I was calling you on the way here but I guess you didn't hear me. Where have you been? The hospital's been boring and crazy without you!" Chastised Ino, looking the same as usual and tapping her foot on the floor, waiting for Sakura's reply.

"I'm sorry Ino," sighed Sakura, pressing her hand to her forehead and she used the other hand to close the door, "Tsunade gave me today off, but I'll be back tomorrow."

"Why did she give you the day off? I've been asking for an extra day off for weeks but the old crone still hasn't given it to me," Ino pouted, folding her arms and seating herself on Sakura's couch.

"She saw me drinking at a bar and-"

"So you have to drink with her to get a day off? God, she's such an alcoholic," Ino mused before she raised a blond brow, "Wait, why were you drinking? You never drink."

"Sai broke up with me, that's all. Nothing big." Sakura shrugged.

"_WHAT? THAT GAY SON OF A BITCH!" _Ino yelled, visibly irritated. Serious turquoise eyes settled on Sakura's green ones, and she patted the empty space on the couch next to her.

"Tell me everything."

Sakura stepped towards her and sat down next to her best friend.

"Well, Sai and I were walking home and we started making out against a wall."

"Oooh, juicy."

Sakura shook her head before proceeding, "He started... doing... _stuff_... to make me moan and it turns out that we were making out against Sasuke's house and we woke up Sasuke, who came out looking really mad."

Ino's pale eyes glimmered with mischief as she spoke, "Mhmmm, continue,"

"Then we left and he dropped me off here and he wanted to continue from where we left off but when he started to pull my shirt up I called it off and he just left. The next day was all awkward so I invited the team to dinner over here and right after everyone left, Sai helped me clean but he came up behind me, broke it ff and left without another word."

"That's it?"

Sakura nodded.

"Just like that?"

Another nod.

"That jackass. He just wanted you for sex! UGHH I hate men like him."

Ino wrapped her arms around her best friend, declaring, "I swear to God I'm going to castrate him one of these days."

"At least I'm desirable enough to be wanted for sex," admitted Sakura, "And you go ahead and do that... If you can find anything down there," she added while giggling.

"Well you're the one who was with him! You tell me if he has anything down there," Ino pulled back and winked.

Sakura separated herself from Ino and replied, "Well.. I haven't seen it bare, but let's just say it seems like he makes fun of Naruto's dick because he's insecure about his, and I'm sure you can guess why."

Ino erupted into howls of laughter along with Sakura.

Ino wiped a tear from her eye, "Well, I'm lucky to have Shika then," she sputtered, still giggling.

"Oh yeah, how are you guys anyways?" Sakura asked.

"We're fine. Great actually. He surprised me with a box of chocolate and violets the other day. He always knows how to surprise me,"

"Well that's what you get for dating the commander of Konoha, the genius with an IQ over 200." Sakra remarked

Ino smiled proudly at the thought of her boyfriend. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, Naruto came barging through the door.

"Sakura-channn! Why can't you come on the mission with us? Tsunade no baa-chan told me to ask you. Are you sick? No, then you'd heal yourself," Naruto bantered with himself, "And why is Ino here?"

Sakura answered plainly, "Sai broke up with me after dinner last night so shishou gave me today off."

Naruto's cobalt eyes widened with concern, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Sakura replied honestly, "I didn't even cry. I definitely felt sad and mad yet I don't know why I just couldn't bring myself to cry."

"Do you want me to treat you to Ichiraku?" Naruto offered, holding up his green frog wallet.

_No, anything but that, _thought Sakura, "No thank you, Naruto. I'm not hungry."

"Later tonight we should all go clubbing," Ino suggested, "Sakura, I'll round up the girls and we can all go to the hot springs later tonight around 7 before we hit the club. Naruto, you can go to the hot springs too or do whatever you want before we go. We meet at the club downtown at 9."

Both Naruto and Sakura nodded, liking the idea.

"Yosh! I'll see you tonight then," prompted Naruto before leaving.

Noticing the clock now struck three, Ino announced, "Alright, well I'm off too, forehead, I need to go clothes shopping before I go tonight. You want to come?"

"No thanks, Ino-pig," grinned Sakura, " I'm just going to take a nap before the springs."

"Fine with me," Ino closed the door to Sakura's apartment.

Sakura kicked her shoes off near the door and made her way to her bed to take a nap until 6. She laid down on the bed and settled under her covers, instantly falling asleep.

* * *

Sasuke closed the door and sat himself on his sofa next to his front door. Hn. Funny how she shows up right as he thought about her. He once again thought about the possible candidates of women who could help him rebuild his clan.

They were all taken, all except for Sakura. Not that he'd consider anyone else anyways. Sakura was the only one he was comfortable spending the rest of his life with. Not because he has any special feelings for her, just that she was apart of his childhood. She was the only girl who understood him, who supported him though he's... "emotionally constipated", as Sai would define it.

On top of that, she was a splendid kunoichi. The only kunoichi that was on his level, Sasuke believed, but would never admit it aloud. He remembered when she first demonstrated her new powers during the war, breaking the ground in front of him. He'd been surprisingly impressed, to say the least.

The only reason he never tried to court her was because he never really gave thought to it. Until now. _But how does a man court a woman?_, Sasuke wondered. The nicest thing he'd done for only a select few was save them from danger. After that, they did all the work and pegged after him 24/7. Even some girls that he didn't do anything for chased after him. Sasuke shuddered. Hell, he didn't even know two-thirds of the girls who chased after him in the Academy days.

He never intended for them to, but oh how he wished Sakura still obsessed over him like before. That would definitely make things easier on his end. But that Sakura, the immature and needy Sakura, was not the one he desired. The current, mature and independent Sakura was the one. Only she is worthy of being at his side.

Sasuke wondered if she even had any remote feelings for him anymore besides her initial care for him. If anything, she might not even have feelings for him anymore since she was able to move on to Sai. He wouldn't make her spend the rest of her life with him unless she had feelings for him. Yet, Sasuke wasn't worried. He would revive her past affection for him sooner or later.

It was a good thing that Sakura is currently single, thought Sasuke. Otherwise, he would have to settle for picking a random woman up at a bar. He isn't the type to try and steal someone else's girl, knowing he himself would kill anyone if they stole his. But yet, Sakura was hurt and he didn't think that was very good at all. He would have to steal the spotlight of her affection from Sai and direct it towards himself.

Sasuke got up and began to heat up water for tea. _I **will** make her mine_, Sasuke swore, _No one else can have her_.

* * *

Naruto walked around town inviting the guys to join the girls at the club later tonight. Things wouldn't be very fun if only a few of them were there, so he figured he might as well invite everyone that graduated from the ninja academy with him.

Of course, Neji wouldn't be there-at least, not physically. Spiritually, Naruto believed Neji lived on in everyone, and his sacrifice can never be forgotten. He came across Shino's house and hesitantly stepped forward to knock on his front door.

Shino stepped out of his house, "Naruto. What brings you here?"

Naruto fidgeted with his fingers, "Ano, later Sakura and the rest of the girls are going to be meeting at the club downtown to hang out. Before that though, at 7, I'm planning to stop by the hot springs. I'm inviting everyone else to go too."

Shino nodded before saying, "I see. Which of the guys are going?"

"I'm pretty sure Ino is going to force Shikamaru to go, and TenTen will force Lee to be there. But aside from them, I don't know yet because you're the first one I came to tell."

"I see, I am grateful that _this _time you remembered me and didn't leave me behind. Thank you. I may or may not be there tonight, we shall see. If you do not see me there, I am not there and will not be going. If you do see me there, then I am there and I will be staying." Shino stated simply and walked back into his house without another word.

_He's **still **sulking about the time we tried to go get Sasuke back without him?_ Naruto thought, slightly annoyed. He wondered if Shino will actually come. He couldn't imagine Shino going into the club and dancing. Hell, he didn't _want _to imagine Shino getting down on the dancefloor. Naruto shook the onslaught of images trying to invade his mind.

He passed by Kiba's, Lee's, and Shouji's houses. He portrayed the message to each of them. Kiba instantly agreed and Chouji agreed to go only if there would be barbecue, to which Naruto still managed to convince him to go. _Next, teme_.

Sasuke's house came into view and Naruto didn't bother knocking at all. He put his hand on the doorknob and turned. He walked into Sasuke's dark living room, lit only by the bright sun peaking through his window blinds. Naruto found the lamp in the corner of Sasuke's house and turned it on, illuminating the room. Sasuke was in his kitchen, pouring tea into a cup before he grabbed another one and filled that one up as well.

"Usuratonkachi." Sasuke greeted, sliding a cup of tea across the kitchen table to Naruto, "I'm not giving you any more of my cup ramen. You finished it all. Find someone else to mooch off of."

"T-teme!" Naruto whined, "That type of ramen was discontinued, and they're only willing to sell them to you. _Pleaseeee?_"

"Hn."

Naruto groaned in frustration before remembering what he stopped by to do.

"Oi, teme. Sakura and Ino are planning to have a get together at the club downtown. Before that though, I want to stop by the hot springs at 7 to let loose. I've invited all of the guys and most of them are coming. You should come too."

_Sakura huh?_, Sasuke thought, "Hn. I'll see."

"Or you can just stay home alone and be the antisocial ass you normally are. Up to you," Naruto suggested as he moved from the table towards the door.

Sasuke smirked, "Aa."

"I'm going now. I better see you there later or I'll visit you everyday at work and make sure you get nothing done. Ja ne!" Naruto waved as he closed the door behind him.

Sasuke was left to his thoughts once again. He wondered if he should go or not, then remembered that Sakura was going to be there.

_This is perfect_, he realized. This could be his chance to make Sakura his. Of course, he wasn't going to bed her right away. He was dealing with one of the new legendary sannin, a woman whose temper had everyone running in the opposite direction when it was triggered. This was to be handled delicately, and he could not rush it. But tonight is the night. Tonight is the night he would begin the first step his mission to make Sakura his, to rebuild the Uchiha clan.

* * *

Naruto left Sasuke's house and headed to Sai's. As he approached, he noticed the rain clouds now gathering in the sky. With the some-what gloomy sky looming above Sai's house, Naruto thought, _Sai's house look_s _depressing._ The windows that were usually open to let sunshine it were now shut and gave off a sad mood. He stood in front and knocked. Sai opened the door, revealing his messed up hair and blood-shot eyes with dark bags under them.

"Ah, dickless." Sai greeted, his usual playful tone tinged with a tone of exhaustion.

"We need to talk. Now."

The playful tone in Sai's voice disappeared and he spoke, " Is this about Sakura?"

Naruto glared at Sai, an action Sai took to mean yes.

"This is perfect, because I really need your help."

Sai stepped aside and motioned Naruto to come into his house. The door shut firmly behind them and the questions began.

* * *

Sakura awoke at 5:59. Being a shinobi had trained her to be able to wake up at any time she wanted. Being a shinobi, you can't afford to leave yourself vulnerable, even in sleep. She got up and ate; She didn't want to have her stomach growling as she was dancing in the club, but she didn't stuff her face either. She needed to be able to actually _fit _in her dress at the club tonight.

Removing her buttocks from the chair, she went to gather the clothes she was bringing to the hot springs. Deciding to change immediately into her dress after bathing, Sakura ironed the dress and packed it along with her other clothes in a big bag. The time now read 6:30, and Sakura left her house, ready for a night of relaxation and fun. Not even the rain clouds gathering in the sky could rain on her parade tonight.

* * *

She arrived at the hot springs and walked into the girls dressing/shower room. An abundance of steam rose out of the tops of shower stalls, leaving the ceiling glistened with perspiration. In a stall, she stripped off her clothes and folded them. She turned of the faucet to shower before getting into the water. After rinsing herself off, she wrapped herself with a white towel she received from the front desk, she walked from the stalls and showers into a room with one wall full of shelves where people can place their clothes. Placing her clothes and bag inside a shelf, she pulled back the sliding door to get in to the water.

Already submerged in the water were Ino, TenTen and Hinata.

"Sakura! It's about time you're here!" Ino exclaimed.

Sakura retorted with a smile on her face, "It's barely 7! Didn't you say to be here at 7?"

"Yeah but I expected the forehead girl to use that big brain of hers to be smart enough to come early!"

Sakura laughed, "At least I'm not a pig!"

Ino crossed her arms and pouted in defeat, amusement staining her pale turquoise eyes as TenTen and Hinata giggled. Sakura finally joined them, dropping the towel behind her as the water enveloped her body, acting as her new towel. She let out a sigh of content.

"So," TenTen spoke up, " I hear that you wrecked a bar last night."

Ino's orbs widened in surprise at TenTen before turning to Sakura, "Eh?! And you didn't tell me about this?!"

"Where did you hear that from?" asked Sakura.

TenTen answered, "I get my wine from that bar, so when I stopped by today, I saw the hole in the wall and, of course, I'm going to ask about it. They said you got drunk, passed out, and punched whoever tried to wake you up."

The other three besides TenTen all laughed at how bluntly put Sakura's night was.

"Yeah.. I was feeling the need to get drunk last night. Sai broke up with me, but I'm fine. No need to worry."

Hinata and TenTen gasped in surprise before asking Sakura to tell them more about it. Sakura briefed it for them- how she and Sai were against Sasuke's house, Sakura's denying Sai of sex, the dinner, and him breaking up with her afterwards-leaving TenTen cursing Sai out and Hinata with a confused expression.

The Hyuuga heiress spoke, "D-demo, it seemed like he really did love you. I saw the look in his eyes whenever you entered the room."

"I don't now, seems to me like he just wanted her for sex and broke up with her when he couldn't smash his dick into Sakura's vagina."

They all laughed at Ino's crude use of language, and Sakura offered her opinion, "I don't know, I've actually denied him more than a few times and if he really just wanted sex why would he stick around for that long when he can just pick some girl up at a bar?"

"Because they aren't you, and he _only_ wants the Haruno Sakura treasures," TenTen waggled her eyebrows at Sakura, who turned pink and laughed a heartfelt laugh.

"You really are beautiful, inside and out, so of course he only wants you." Hinata stated.

"Thanks guys, really. You always make me smile."

"Oh, so now we're _guys_? We must be becoming transvestites so someone find a dick and hand it to me so I can surgically attach it to my vagina.", Ino joked.

Everyone erupted into stomach cramping laughter.

_These right here are true friends_, Sakura observed, forever grateful she ever met them.

* * *

After the group got dressed, they all headed to the club. Music was being blasted so loudly that they could even hear it from outside the club. Once inside, Sakura and Ino immediately hit the dance floor while TenTen and Hinata set out to find the guys. The dance floor was at the center of the club, with booths stationed along the walls. The booths were lit by a single hanging lantern at every booth whereas the dance floor was dimly lit by a single punk-ish looking chandelier. Randomly dispersed along the walls, floor and ceiling of the club were lightly glowing stones of every color.

Sakura began to dance to the fast paced beat of the music. Her eyes followed TenTen and Hinata, slightly worried that they won't be able to find the guys. Luckily, they came across Shikamaru who was leaving the bar with a tray of tiny shot glasses. Following Shikamaru, they found the boys-Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, Shino, Chouji and Lee. Relieved that they weren't left alone, Sakura began to relax, losing herself in the music, not noticing the intense gazes she was receiving.

* * *

Sasuke disliked the situation he was in. He had worn dress pants and a white dress shirt, purposefully undoing four of the buttons, showing some of his pale chiseled chest. He did it to draw Sakura's attention, yet she was nowhere to be seen. Instead, three young women broke from the crowded mass of bodies known as the dance floor and approached him. Before they reached seven feet of him, he raised his hand up and made a gesture of shooing them away. Two of them got the message and changed directions, but one did not. A tiny woman with a clear and pale complexion, jet black hair, bright blue eyes and a curvy body approached him.

"You look fuckable," She purred, trying to sound seductive as she trailed her hand down his open chest, "Let's go back to your place and I can show you just how fucking sexy you are?"

Sasuke was not phased. Snatching her hand away from his chest, he spoke clearly as he threw her hand back down to her side, "No,"

Seeming to finally get the message, the girl pouted and walked away. Sasuke stood next to their table and look around the club out of boredom. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the door to the club opening, and in came the girls. First were TenTen and Hinata, followed by Ino.

Sasuke's breath hitched in his throat as he saw Sakura enter the club. Her hair was styled into messy curls that fell down her shoulders. She wore a shouler-less black dress that hugged her body, showing every curve she had to offer and slightly dipped into her cleavage, barely going two inches past the bottom of her butt. In place of her sleeves was one thick strap on each arm. Her dress dipped down in the back, stopping just above the round curve of her butt, creating a v-shape. The dress left little to the imagination, and Sasuke watched as she swiveled her hips to the music. Her makeup illuminated her eyes, the black eyeliner making her green eyes pop and her mascara making her eyelashes thicker and fuller making them more intense. He had half a mind to snatch her up and take her right then and there, but his self control reigned and he stood his ground and continued to watch her with intense onyx eyes.

* * *

Half an hour of dancing made Sakura tired, and she was beginning to feel dehydrated. She left to grab a drink of water from the bar, not daring to touch any alcohol tonight. She strode over to the bar and asked the bartender for a tall glass of water. After the bartender got her the glass of water, she downed it all and placed her glass down on the table. That's when she saw. Her emerald green eyes settled upon a man across from her at the bar.

A pale man with black hair was heatedly making out with a woman she did not recognize. She may not have recognized the woman, but she recognized the man instantly. The man who constantly expressed how Naruto and Sasuke should have sex to let out all their aggression towards each other. The man who wore a shirt that flaunted his abs. The man who broke up with her just yesterday. Sai. And he was making out with a random girl.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note**_**: I am sooo sorry for being gone a week longer than I was supposed to! I got caught up studying for finals T.T On the bright side, I am currently on break and therefore will have more time to delegate to writing. To make up for my missed week, I made this chapter longer so I hope you enjoy!**_

_**P.S: You better enjoy it because I stayed up until four am last night trying to write this baby haha. **_

**Disclaimer: ****As much as I would like to take them from him, a**ll characters belong to Kishimoto.

* * *

Sakura turned and stomped away through the crowd towards the entrance of the club, fury raging within her like a fire that was just added to with lighter fluid.

How _dare_ he? She could care less that he left her for sex but _this_? _This_ was the tip of the iceberg. She was done with him. Completely and utterly done. She knew they were no longer in a relationship but how _dare _he_ pretend_ to love her, break up with her, and hook up with another girl the night after?

As she was making her way through the crowd, someone behind her groped her ass. The veins in Sakura's forehead strained under her skin, about ready to pop out. _Oh hell no_. She spun her head around and saw a man that looked to be in his late thirties, a shocked expression on his face. She used the advantage of her heels and stomped on the foot that was closest to her, restraining herself from using her chakra enhanced strength-though the marble floor was still cracked without the use of chakra.

He let out a howl of pain as she snapped, "Find someone your own age,"

Normally, she wouldn't have done that. She's usually composed enough to walk away. But tonight, right now, she was angry. Stomping on that mans foot had only relieved a tiny fraction of her anger. Reaching the door to the club, she paused and walked to the table where everyone was at. She left her bag with TenTen and almost forgot it in the heat of the moment.

She approached the table, and her anger must have shown more than she thought because Ino approached tentatively, asking "What's wrong?"

Sakura stopped walking and motioned with her head, pointing it in the direction of Sai, "Look for yourself."

Ino's eyes followed the direction Sakura pointed in and she let out a groan of frustration, "Ugh. I am _so_ going to castrate him... you're leaving?"

"Yup," Sakura continued her walk towards the table.

Ino followed her, saying, "Come on Sakura! Don't let that ruin your night, stay and just forget about him! Find another guy and make him jealous or something, just don't leave and let this ruin your night,"

Sakura stopped _again_ and faced Ino, "If I stay I'm just going to be a party pooper with my attitude. And, the longer I stay, the angrier I'll get, meaning I might not be able to restrain from punching him and damaging the club or I'll resort to being immature and trying to make him jealous," Sakura explained, "I'm sorry Ino, this was a great idea and the time I spent here was fun. But, I have to leave before I lose my rationality."

Defeated, Ino let out a sigh and hugged her, "You'll be fine, you're always so strong-and I'm not just talking about your muscles,"

Sakura nodded before Ino pulled back, looking at her with eyes that portrayed adoration and added, "You've grown into a fine flower over the years. Remember how immature we used to be, constantly fighting over Sasuke?"

"That was all _you_ actually," Sakura teased.

"No it wasn't! You were in it as much as I was!" Ino denied, "Speaking of Sasuke, have you _seen _him tonight?"

Pink eyebrows rose, "No, why?"

Ino looked around, making sure no one at the table was within earshot, "I know I'm in a relationship and all, but he looks _good_ tonight. Better than usual. As if he actually tried to dress up for once."

Sakura, now interested, let out a questioning, "Oh?"

"Yeah. Here, you can see him when you grab your bag to leave," Ino and Sakura both continued the walk that was interrupted so many times.

Finally reaching the table, everyone greeted Sakura and Ino, most of the guys complimenting them on how they looked. The booth was in the shape of an upside-down horseshoe; Starting from the left was Kiba, Shino, Chouji, Shikamaru, Lee, TenTen, and Hinata at the end.

Sakura looked around, finding Naruto, who was leaning against the booth on Hinata's side, dressed in a light orange dress shirt and black pants. _Weird_, Sakura thought. Naruto rarely ever dressed up for anything. Sasuke was leaning against the side opposite of Naruto, next to Kiba. He was faced towards the dance floor watching people dance with a bored expression while leaning against the wall.

The wind was knocked out of her lungs as she looked him up and down. What he was wearing was definitely different from what he usually wore. He was wearing a plain white dress shirt and plain black dress pants. While little about him was changed besides what he was wearing, his dress shirt was open four buttons down, revealing much of his chiseled chest. How such a simple alteration in clothing made such a huge difference on him, Sakura would never understand. She momentarily wondered what it would feel like to run her hands over his chest before turning her head away from him and approaching Hinata.

_Focus_, she reminded herself.

She spoke, "Hinata, do you know where my bag is?"

Hinata looked startled for a second, and Sakura noticed the direction her eyes were gazing in. Naruto. Amusement sparked Sakura's eyes as she observed her love-struck friend.

"A-ano, it's right here." Hinata stuttered, handing Sakura her bag, "Are you leaving?"

Sakura took the bag and nodded in response. Not wanting to explain to her in front of everybody, Sakura leaned in near Hinata's ear and whispered, "Ask Ino. She'll explain."

Understanding, Hinata nodded her head and replied, "It's unfortunate you're leaving so soon, it's only been an hour,"

"I know. By the way, you should talk to Naruto, I could have sworn I saw him staring at you,"

Sakura winked at her blushing friend as she pulled back and announced to everyone that she was leaving. When she received many why's from everyone, she made an excuse.

"I have work tomorrow and I still have to do my laundry," She answered to everyone, scratching the back of her head nervously.

"We didn't even get to see you get drunk! We wanted to see you punch Naruto through the wall!" Kiba joked.

"Trust me, you don't want to see me drunk," she remarked.

Sakura turned to leave and walked a few steps before Naruto stopped her, placing a hand on her shoulder. _Why does everyone keep stopping me while I'm walking?_

She turned, green eyes meeting blue, "Sakura-chan, why are you leaving?"

Sakura sighed, "Sai. I saw him making out with a girl."

Naruto replied, "That asshole. I swear I had no idea he was here. I would've told you if I knew. I'm sorry, Sakura-chan."

"It's okay, Naruto. It's not your fault. Just go have fun," she leaned in to whisper to him, "And you should dance with Hinata, she looks bored."

"But I don't know how to dance,"

"Then just go and talk to her! She still has feelings for you, you know."

"I know, but she's just so pretty I don't know what to do."

Sakura smiled inwardly at Naruto. _How cute,_ Sakura thought. He and Hinata are perfect for each other, they just need an extra push.

"What happened to the brave Naruto that never hesitated to fight the Akatsuki and Obito and even Madara?"

Naruto stiffened at this before replying, "He's here, just hiding behind Hinata's silky hair."

"Well he needs to come out from hiding and talk to her, before she moves on. She's been waiting for him for so many years, and girls can only wait for so long," Sakura warned.

At this, Naruto's eyes narrowed before he nodded. He took a deep breath and immediately went to work, kneeling down by Hinata and seeming to make conversation with her. _That's it,_ admired Sakura, hoping she had finally given the two that push to get their relationship going. She continued to walk towards the entrance of the club. Thankfully, no one stopped her and no men groped her on the way out. As she opened the door, streams of light flushed her face before she brought a foot forward and stepped outside.

* * *

Sasuke watched Sakura as she swung her hips on the dance floor, and the other guys seemed to notice she was there as well.

"Is that Sakura?" Naruto asked aloud.

"She looks beautiful,"

"Watch over her guys, someone is most likely going to try and take her home," Naruto warned.

"Not if I do it first!"

"Did she always have that ass?"

"I don't know, but she knows how to use it, that's for sure,"

Sasuke's jaw clenched. He was too mad to bother to try and determine who was making those crude comments about Sakura out loud. He wanted to punch them, each and every one that was commenting on Sakura. Sakura was _his_ to take. She always was. The comments ceased to come, and Sasuke unclenched his jaw.

Sakura had stopped dancing and was downing a glass of water. After setting the glass down, he noticed she was staring at something, with fury burning in her eyes. He followed her gaze and saw that jackass Sai making out with another girl.

Sasuke expected Sakura to blow up and come down on Sai with her inhuman strength. So when he saw her stomp away (and on a guys foot) instead, he was surprised by her yet again. He mentally reminded himself that this Sakura was different from the old Sakura he knew, and he would have to start from the beginning and learn Sakura's personality all over again.

She stopped in front of the entrance and veered towards the table. He watched as she stopped to talk to Ino twice before actually reaching the table. When she reached the table he averted his attention towards the dance floor, looking indifferent as usual. From the periphery of his vision he saw Sakura looking at him for some time before grabbing her bag and announcing she was going to leave. Sasuke's inner self smirked.

She began to leave when she was stopped by a blonde for the third time that night. Sasuke glanced at Naruto and Sakura. They were talking seriously for a few moments and Sasuke noticed that Naruto began to blush. _Why is he blushing?_ Sasuke wondered. Was it something Sakura said? He observed as Naruto left Sakura and began to talk to the Hyuuga heiress, and Sasuke understood why he was blushing.

He watched as Sakura strode towards the entrance before pushing the doors open and letting them close behind her.

Curious as to what she was going to do now, Sasuke decided to follow her. He began towards the entrance as well while Naruto called after him.

"Sasuke! Where are you going?!"

"Home," he replied simply.

"You don't want to stay?" Naruto asked, feigning hurt in his tone.

"Hn."

Naruto sighed, "Fine, go then."

"As if you could stop me," Sasuke said before proceeding out the doors of the club.

Sasuke spotted Sakura across the street and sped up to catch up to her, making sure he made no sounds and making sure to mask his chakra. He continued to trail her, ending up on the roof of her apartment. He began to feel tiny drips of water land on his face. Thinking she was just going to stay home, he made a move to go home himself when he heard the front door open and shut again. She was going down the steps of her apartment, changed into her regular clothes and with her hair tied back into a ponytail.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, _Where is she going? _

* * *

A few minutes later, Sasuke found himself hiding in a tree at the training grounds, rain pouring from the heavens as he watched Sakura train, mesmerized by the sight.

Sakura looked up as she felt the icy drops of water begin to pelt her skin. What had once been a light drizzle became a constant shower of raindrops drumming against the ground. Tiny bumps arose along the lengths of her arms and legs, spreading across her chest. The cold wind blew, reducing Sakura's body temperature even further. Deciding she didn't care about getting cold and wet, she began to move her hands, forming seals. A poof resounded as a second Sakura appeared beside the original. Sakura motioned for her clone to back up farther away and to take out her ponytail so they could distinguish each other if they made more clones. As soon as the hair came down she came rushing at her clone emanating a deadly intent to kill, pulling out a glinting kunai.

Steel clashed with steel and the doppelganger backed up, sending three shuriken slicing the air towards Sakura. Sakura moved her hand, repelling two of the shuriken. She had just remembered there were three shuriken when a dark grey metal star hit her side. A poof sounded before a log fell to the floor.

The irises of her clone's eyes moved rapidly around the training grounds, looking for Sakura. Taking this moment to attack, a second clone of Sakura jumped down from a tree behind the first clone and swung a leg at her. The leg glazed the clone's chin as she moved her head to the side, dodging the kick.

_Damn, I'm good_, thought Sakura as she watched from the trees. The clone lurched back and got into a defensive fighting stance, to which the other clone mimicked. She smirked as she saw the original Sakura jumping silently from tree to tree, stopping and giving her other clone a thumbs up when she was finally behind their target.

The clone charged at herself with a speed she was holding back, swinging her fist at original clone. The clone dodged and moved back, her spine now a foot away from touching the trunk of the tree.

Anticipating this, Sakura, hidden in the tree, leaped from the branch above her opponent. Her fist began to glow blue, filled with chakra as she pummeled the clone into the ground.

Sakura stood up, panting, satisfaction written all over her face. Sasuke's eyes scanned over her form. Drenched in rain, Sakura's hair tumbled down in pink waves, curls no longer present. Her clothes clung to her body, now as revealing of her curves as the dress she was previously wearing- just without showing as much of her milky skin. Her chest rose and fell steadily, her breathing now becoming relaxed. Conveniently sized and supple breasts were now noticeable, with nipples beginning to stick out from under her shirt. Glinting water mixed with sweat caused her hair to stick onto the column of her neck. Droplets of water trailed down the frame of her face, illuminating her jewel-like eyes.

Her hands moved, once again forming seals. Sasuke watched, shocked as another clone popped up beside her. Sakura's clone then began to pick objects up and pelt them at Sakura at varying speeds, testing Sakura's ability to dodge.

_She's still going to continue training?_ Sasuke found himself strangely worried, not wanting her to get sick but too entranced to tell her to stop.

An hour passed before Sasuke decided to stop her, noticing the sickly paleness in her skin, the redness of her finger tips and her constant panting. _She's tired_, Sasuke thought, _she could easily get sick_. Before thinking things through, he jumped down from the tree he was hiding in and began walking towards her. The rain began to pelt his bare chest the second he emerged from under the canopy of the tree. Within seconds he was behind Sakura. Noticing his presence, Sakura spun around with a kunai in hand, ready to attack.

Upon noticing that the person who approached her was Sasuke, she relaxed.

"Sasuke? What are you doing here?" she asked in between pants.

"You should take a break and go home," Sasuke commanded.

Her eyes narrowed as the world around her began to sway, "You didn't answer my question, what are you doing here?"

"... Ino asked me to check on you since I was going home," he lied.

"Oh, well you can tell Ino I'm fine and you can just leave now," she urged, breathing slowly to try and get the world to stay still.

"No, you're not fine. You need to go home before you get sick."

"I know that," she snapped, suppressing the nausea ripping through her stomach, "But I also know how to take care of myself, and therefore, I don't need you to babysit me and tell me what to do like I'm a child."

"You call passing out at a bar and needing me to bring you home taking care of yourself?" Sasuke spat.

Sakura sighed irritably, "That was just one night, Sasuke. You could have just told them to get Naruto if you didn't want to deal with bringing me home. But you didn't, and that was your choice. Don't blame _me _for something _you _chose to do. "

Sasuke's mouth formed a straight line as he remained silent.

Sakura gulped down a burp that might not even be a burp, "Just leave, Sasuke."

"Hn."

As if he'd let her boss him around. Instead of turning to leave, Sasuke's hand shot out, grabbing Sakura's pale wrist. His eyes slightly widened at the feel of how cold she was._ At this rate, she could get hypothermia,_ he observed. Sasuke was no medic, but living with Kabuto for a few years taught him a few things. He began to walk in the direction of her house, dragging a struggling Sakura.

"Sasuke, just let me be-"

She was cut off as she felt herself suddenly being lifted off the ground. Sasuke snaked an arm around Sakura's small waist and another under her knees, picking her up. He began to carry her, knowing full well that if he had continued to drag her, she would have easily turned the tables so that he was being flung across the village. After pulling her up, he felt the full onslaught of the icy coldness of her body. It was almost as if he had just taken her out of a freezer. She struggled in his arms like a fish, and he hissed when he almost dropped her.

Upon passing a group of old ladies, Sasuke noticed the way they grouped together and began to whisper while watching him. They chattered, covering their mouths as they talked. Their beady eyes constantly raked over him and Sakura before returning to each other, each glance seeming to fuel their conversations.

He was dumbfounded as to what they were whispering about when Sakura yelled at the old crones, "It's not what it looks like!"

It then dawned on him that the way he was carrying Sakura was notorious for being the way husbands carried their wives down the aisle during a wedding.

"He's carrying her bridal style! Are they married?!" One lady gasped.

Upon hearing this, Sakura's cheeks began to burn red, and she began to squirm even more. His grip tightened on her waist, trying to halt her movements.

"But why is she wriggling? Could they be getting into an arranged marriage?" Another asked skeptically.

Sasuke ignored the comments and hurried his pace, more determined to get to her apartment than ever. Sakura's apartment came into view, and Sakura decided to stop wriggling, seeing as she was almost home and the more she struggled, the more she felt like throwing up. He carried her up the steps to her apartment.

"He's taking her into an apartment!" Someone exclaimed.

_Now come the rumors,_ Sasuke mentally rolled his eyes.

* * *

Now at the front door of her home, he let her down. Sakura handed Sasuke her keys before she moved to hang over the railing. As he unlocked the door, she tried to steady her breathing when a barrage of coughs racked her lungs, leaving her with little air to breathe. When her lungs were finally given a break, she felt what she had for dinner coming back up her throat.

She retreated off of the railing and ran inside her home and into her bathroom, closing the door behind her. As she ran from outside she could have sworn she heard one of those old crones accusing her of being pregnant. She knelt down in front of her toilet and emptied the contents of her stomach in it, grateful that she cleans it regularly. Her hand pulled the flush lever, vomit mixed with water now disappearing into the depths of her toilet. She stood up and opened the bathroom window before spraying it with perfume, trying to eradicate the foul smell of vomit from the air. Then she moved to her sink, splashing her face with warm water and brushing her teeth, the repugnant acidic taste of vomit lingering in her throat. After gargling water, she spat into her sink and opened her bathroom door.

Sakura slowly trudged into her living room, still dizzy and now shivering cold as well. Sasuke examined her from her couch. She didn't notice he was there until he was suddenly standing right in front of her.

"Sakura."

"I'm fine. I'm home now, so you can leave."

He ignored her, and, spotting the tea he bought her, walked into her kitchen. He heard her sigh in defeat behind him, and he smirked to himself. _I win_. He used a fire justu to fire up the stove and began to heat up water as Sakura lumbered into her room. He was pouring tea into cups when she exited her room wearing red pajamas decorated with pink strawberries. He followed her to the couch, letting her settle onto it before placing a hand on her forehead. Her head was burning, yet she was shivering, signs of a fever. He retracted his hand and offered her a cup of tea.

"Thanks," Sakura murmured, taking and bringing the cup of tea to her pale blue lips. A few sips and her dizziness was eradicated.

"You have a fever."

It wasn't a question. Sakura raised a hand of hers to her forefead, confirming Sasuke's statement.

"Yup."

"You should heal yourself or take medicine." Sasuke suggested.

"I don't carry any medicine because I prefer to let my immune system handle common sicknesses. Otherwise my immune system would weaken, and my body would constantly rely on me healing myself."

Sasuke nodded, his wet bangs covering his pale face. Sakura's eyes raked over Sasuke's form. Her breath hitched when she realized that Sasuke was also drenched. His hair hung heavily above his shoulders, no longer sticking up. His previously white shirt was now see through and clung to his body, revealing his sculpted torso through the fabric. Droplets of water trailed down his porcelain skin-from his neck, past his collarbone, disappearing somewhere into his shirt. His pecs were still as muscular as ever and his dark nipples distended. His hard abs stood out more than the white shirt was allowing it to, yet it caught Sakura's attention. _Since when did he have an eight pack?_

Remembering that she might be caught staring, Sakura looked up at him, "You should go home now Sasuke, before you also get sick."

"How ironic, coming from the girl who refused to listen to me earlier." Sasuke huffed, crossing his arms.

Sakura stood, "Well _I _can heal _myself_," she pointed a finger at him, pressing it against his chest, "_You_, sir,_ can't_."

"Hn." Sasuke replied, "It's just a cold,"

"Exactly, so explain to me, _why_ did you even care so much about me getting sick?"

In that second, Sasuke found the floor to be _very_ interesting, hesitant in his reply, "... You're a teammate,"

Sakura narrowed her eyes, wanting to say more but instead raised her arms in defeat, "I guess, do whatever you want-it's 11:30 and I'm going to sleep."

After sauntering into her room, she turned around poked her head out from her doorway, "Good night, Sasuke. Make sure you lock the door on your way out."

She closed her bedroom door, encompassing herself in the darkness of her room. She waded to her bed and jumped onto it, wrapping herself in her blankets. Enveloped in warmth, she exhaled in content, finding a pillow and wrapping both her arms and legs around it. She thought she heard her front door close, alerting her that Sasuke had left. She smelt Sasuke's scent, realizing that his smell must have rubbed off on her while he was carrying her. She wondered why Sasuke was showing such concern for her until her eyes fluttered shut, her last thought a question. _Why do I feel like someone is watching me__?__  
_

* * *

Sasuke stood in Sakura's living room momentarily, listening. At the sound of the bedroom door closing, he turned to leave. He locked the door and was about to close it behind him when he paused. He could just leave her alone and go home, but as much as he wanted to go home and change out of his wet clothes, a foreign feeling pooled in his stomach at the thought of leaving a sick Sakura alone.

He reminded himself that Sakura was a grown woman and could take care of herself, but from his subconscious resurfaced the memory of Sakura passed out at the bar. He went back into her apartment, unlocking the door before leaving and closing it. _There's one thing I can do. _He jogged down her stairs and set out. The pitter-patter of the rain had finally stopped, and was replaced with a whistling cool breeze. The breeze ran through his shirt, giving him goosebumps. The familiar outline of a house came into view and he walked towards it.

Sasuke's parents were regular customers of this woman, and he has since followed their tradition. A dark, wooden door stood in front of Sasuke, and he lifted his hand to knock. After knocking twice, the door opened, revealing a pregnant young girl he did not recognize. She looked as if she was in her last trimester. _Hell, it even looks like she's due in the next two hours,_ Sasuke thought.

He spoke quietly, "Is Kagura obaa-chan here?"

The girl nodded her head before disappearing into the dark depths of her house.

A minute later, the pregnant woman returned with a small woman in her mid fifties. Long black hair streaked with white and grey was pulled back and plaited into a long braid, highlighting the aged woman's wrinkled face.

"Sasuke, why are you wet?" Kagura asked, inviting him in.

Sasuke stepped inside, ignoring her question, "I need a few things."

* * *

Minutes later, Sasuke was given all he wanted and was about to leave when Kagura called to him.

"Sasuke," she spoke softly, "In return for all I have done for you and your family the for the past years, I have something I must request of you."

Sasuke remained silent, waiting for her to continue and explain.

Kagura motioned the pregnant woman closer and placed a wrinkled hand on the woman's stomach. She looked up at Sasuke with a smile on her face.

"Do not worry, this favor is minuscule compared to all I have done for your family, and this will benefit you as well."

* * *

Sakura groggily sat up from her bed, eyes glued shut due to the dried eye mucus. She stretched her arms out and yawned before standing up and walking into her bathroom, her eyes still sealed together like an envelope. As she walked, slender fingers rubbed her eyes, bits of eye crust falling to the ground.

Now able to open her eyes, she stood in the bathroom and unbuttoned her shirt, letting the soft material slide off her body and onto the ground. Her pants and undergarments soon followed the shirt, creating a small pile behind her bathroom door. She lifted a leg to step into her shower when she remembered that she had forgotten to grab a towel. _Dang it Sakura,_ she chastised herself. She scurried throughout her room looking for a towel, hoping that no one could see her running amok through her window. Finding a towel in her closet, she hurried back into her bathroom to shower.

The bathroom door opened and a naked Sakura emerged in nothing but a towel through a doorway of steam. She walked into her room, closed the curtains and walked over to her dresser. After putting on a fresh pair of clothes, her stomach spoke to her, begging to be filled in that persuasive voice she almost always caved in to. At the order of her master, Sakura skipped into her kitchen, wondering what she could cook with what little ingredients she had left in her fridge. _I was so caught up yesterday that I didn't even get to buy groceries! _She inwardly cursed herself for forgetting.

Sakura walked over to her fridge and opened it, her eyes immediately widening in surprise. The fridge was stocked full of vegetables and fruits, her freezer stocked with frozen meat. She looked around her kitchen, looking for anything else that might be out of place. In the corner or her eye, Sakura spotted a big wooden basket in the middle of her kitchen table.

She approached it, studying its contents. In it were bottles of medicines for cold, fever, cough, flu, dehydration and more. Posted on top of the largest bottle of medicine was a note that read, "Just in case." She felt her forehead and the lack of warmth signified that she no longer had a fever. _I won't be needing these right now, but thanks, Sasuke_, Sakura thought with a small smile playing on her pink lips.

Among the medications was a large metal pot with another note posted on the top saying "Eat,". Sakura chuckled to herself, _This-this I need._ She eagerly pulled the pot out of the basket and set it on her table, hoping it was Sasuke's soup again. Taking the lid off of the pot she squealed in delight at the sight of the soup. After leaving the table to grab a spoon, she hurried back and scooped some soup into her mouth, gulping it down quickly, similar to the way Naruto devours his ramen. Yeah. It was _that_ good. She took a chair and sat down to drink more of it, deciding to take her time and savor each spoonful as she felt it glide its way down her throat and into the abyss of her stomach. In fifteen minutes the container was empty, and Sakura laid back in her chair, lazily rubbing her stomach.

Why was he bothering to do such things for her anyway? Ino had only told him to check on her, he didn't have to go carrying her home and filling her fridge. Sakura didn't believe for a second that he was doing it because she was a fellow teammate. _Teammate my ass,_ Sakura thought. She had at first thought that he was just being a good teammate, but after all this, Sakura wasn't so sure anymore.

Sakura stood up, resolving to do something nice for Sasuke in return for what he did for her. She put to use the groceries he had so nicely gotten for her and began to make onigiri. After making four onigri, Sakura placed them in a bento box, adding diced tomatoes as a finishing touch. She clasped the box closed. At that second, knocking was heard at her front door, and Sakura washed her hands of rice before running to open it.

"Ohayo, forehead," Ino greeted.

"Ohayo," Sakura returned, letting her best friend into her apartment.

"I was on my way to the hospital and I figured we could both walk there together," the blonde suggested

"Sure, just let me finish packing this real quick," Sakura answered returning to her kitchen.

Ino followed, asking, "What are you packing?"

"Dinner," She answered as she placed the bento box in her bag.

Ino's slim eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "Dinner? Our shift is usually done before dinner, at five o'clock, remember?"

"This is for Sasuke,"

"EH?" Ino looked even more confused than before, her eyes wide and brows still furrowed. Sakura almost giggled at how funny her best friends face looked.

"Yeah, this is Sasuke's dinner,"

"Why are you bringing him dinner all of a sudden?", Ino asked, "Did you hook up with him last night?"

Sakura gasped in mock surprise, "I can't believe you think I'd do that!", she giggled, "Well, he followed your orders and went to check on me, and I was out training in the rain so he forced me to go home by carrying me. Then, I just found out this morning that he stocked my fridge full of groceries and also got me a whole bunch of medicine too. So, to pay him back, I'm going to bring him dinner while he's at work."

"I never told him to check on you," Ino told Sakura slowly, "I didn't even notice him leave,"

Now it was Sakura's turn to be confused, "Why would Sasuke lie about checking on me? Now that I think about it, I never heard him approach and I never sensed his chakra while I was training. It's almost like...", realization dawned on Sakura,"... like he was hiding the whole time I was training..."

"I don't know, maybe he was just being concerned about you."

"That's the thing, he was rarely ever openly concerned about me like this unless I was gravely injured. For stuff like this he's usually nonchalant... I don't know, maybe I'm just over thinking like usual."

Ino narrowed her eyes at Sakura's last sentence, "I don't think you're over thinking this, Sakura. If anyone knows Sasuke, its you. You were the only one who knew that had a clue about his intentions that night he left the village. Maybe you're onto something."

Ino gasped, "Maybe he has feelings for you!"

Sakura instantly rejected the assumption, "Ino, I think you're going a little overboard there. That's not possible,"

"No, no, I think I'm right. If what you say is true, then it all makes sense!"

"What? What makes sense?"

"You should have seen it, Sakura. During the war, when Sasuke came back and you three all began to work together again, I noticed something. When you broke open the ground in front of Sasuke and Naruto, I could have _sworn _I saw him smirking at you."

Sakura shook her head, "No, that's not possible. If he's been having feelings for me since the war, then he would have said something by now."

"Ah, but Sakura, remember? During the first two to three months after the war, he and Naruto were constantly in and out of court trying to keep his ass out of prison. In the meantime, you got together with Sai. Now is the only time you _both_ are not too busy _and_ single."

"... Let's not jump to conclusions here Ino,"

"I know, we're just speculating here,"

"You mean_ you're _speculating," Sakura countered, pulling her bag over her shoulder.

"You should have seen the guys speculating_ you _while you were shaking it on the dance floor. Even if Sasuke hasn't had long-term feelings for you, after you plus that dress plus your booty shaking, it makes sense for him to feel something for you after last night,"

"He was watching me?" Sakura asked dubiously, one pink eyebrow raised as she opened her front door and stepped out.

Ino nodded her head, following Sakura, "Yup, he didn't even try to hide it. No one else really noticed but I noticed. He usually only stares at the floors or walls when he's bored, but last night he was looking at _you_,"

Sakura closed her front door and began to walk down her steps, "Did I really look _that_ good last night?"

"Hell yeah! If I was lesbian and I didn't know you, I would have asked you out," Ino answered behind her.

"And if _I_ were lesbian, I would have accepted," Sakura winked at her best friend, "But I _still_ refuse to assume that Sasuke has feelings for me."

"Whatever, just watch when you two end up together. I can't _wait_ to see cute little pink haired Sasukes running around the village!" she squealed as they walked to the hospital, "When you have them can I adopt one?"

"Watch when we _don't,_" Sakura laughed as Ino huffed and pouted while crossing her arms.

"You never know for sure!"

"99.9 percent chance that's not going to happen,"

".1 percent is enough of a chance for it to happen!" Ino remarked.

Sakura sighed, dropping the topic, "Let's just hurry, _someone's_ probably dying without us,"

"Poor Shizune, when she's not helping out at the hospital she's always running after our drunken shishou,"

Sakura sighed as they approached the entrance to the hospital, "One day that will be me too, except Naruto won't be drunk-he'll just be scoping out at the hot springs or hiding in Ichiraku,"

The two walked into the hospital and were thanked by Shizune before they were immediately ushered into an operating room.

"Wait-can someone get us our coats and gloves!" Sakura yelled as hands pushed her and Ino into a room.

"And can someone put our bags in our offices!" Ino added

Less than a minute later, a young girl appeared with their coats and gloves. The two thanked her and let her take their bags before getting to work. A women with a swollen stomach lay on a bed with her legs wide open, her chest quickly rising and falling and her mouth forming a circle as she tried to control her panting. Clear liquid mixed with a pool of blood as it gushed from the woman's vagina and the woman began to pant more rapidly. Sakura approached the bed and listened to the pregnant woman's stomach, concluding that it was about time for it to come out.

Timely, the woman began to shriek in pain, hitting notes high enough to break glass. She panted, gargling the words, "it's coming!" in between another ear-splitting scream. Sakura circled around the woman until she had full view of the woman's vagina as the muscles contracted, revealing a tiny little patch of bloody hair.

"I can see the baby!", she announced to everyone.

"Come on Haruka-san, keep pushing, you're almost there!"

With that Haruka let out a loud roar, the sound similar to that of a person who's constipated.

"The umbilical cord is wrapped around the baby's neck!", said the L&D nurse monitoring the baby.

"Shit," Sakura cursed under her breath. She originally didn't want to have to perform a caesarian on the woman, but seeing as the baby was choking, it was inevitable.

"Get some epidural running through her system," she commanded to the anesthesiologist.

"Done," the anesthesiologist announced after inserting a needle into Haruka's lower back.

Sakura turned her attention to Haruka, "Do you feel any thins below your waist?"

Haruka shook her head drearily.

"We're going to have to perform a caesarian to get your baby out, okay?"

Haruka nodded, "Anything to get my baby out safely."

"I promise you that your baby will be safe, and you as well." Sakura reassured her.

"I trust you," Answered Haruka.

Sakura stuck her hand out to Ino, who ritually handed her the scalpel. Blood dripped from the incision Sakura made, and she began to dig further into the woman's stomach. Her gloves were now covered in blood as she gently opened the wound, revealing the baby. She pried a blue-faced baby from the abyss of blood. The tangled umbilical cord was restricting the baby's ability to receive blood and oxygen. Sakura untangled the baby from its cord and the sound of crying escaped the baby's mouth as it began to breathe.

* * *

A tuft of blond hair poked through the front doors of the hospital, cobalt blue eyes scanning the place for a sign of Sakura or Ino. Not seeing a sign of either, the whiskered ninja proceeded to the front desk.

"Can you tell me where Sakura-chan's office is?" he asked the receptionist.

She pointed down a hallway, "Take a left from here, then a right. It's room number 662."

"Do you know where she is right now? And Ino?"

"They are in the middle of a surgery at the moment.", she informed him.

He thanked the receptionist before treading down the hallway_, _hoping he won't be caught. Should he be caught, he'd be pummeled 5 kilometers deep into the Earth's crust. Naruto approached the door marked 662. He took the doorknob and took a deep breath before turning it and entering Sakura's office.

* * *

"Look, it's a boy!" Sakura exclaimed as she held the crying baby out to its drugged up mother.

Haruka shakily reached out for the baby. She pulled her son close to her chest, eyes sparkling with love as the baby began to quiet down from his mothers touch.

Not wanting to ruin the moment, Sakura tentatively said, "Haruka-san, we have to stitch up your stomach before you lose anymore blood."

The woman nodded as Ino came and seized the baby, wrapping him in a blanket and pulling him close to her body. Sakura then proceeded to stitch Haruka's stomach up. Once she was done, Ino returned the squirming baby into his mothers arms.

"What are you going to name him?" Sakura asked.

Haruka was silent for some time," He's a fighter-a warrior, this one... I think I'll name him Sasuke."

Sakura stiffened and tried to hide her surprise at someone choosing to name their baby Sasuke. She never would have thought that someone was willing to name their baby Sasuke. Sure, the great Sarutobi Sasuke was a great warrior, but in this era the name Sasuke pertained to another man. And he seemed to ruin the name with his bad reputation, up until the war.

"Ah.. That's a... Nice name,"

"You have a teammate named Sasuke, right?"

Sakura nodded her head.

"Do you think he lives up to it?" Haruka asked.

Sakura nodded her head again, "There isn't a doubt in my mind that Sasuke lives up to the name of being a warrior."

Seemingly satisfied, Haruka returned her attention to the now sleeping baby, adoration and love sparkling her eyes. She lay her head against her pillow and closed her eyes, falling asleep. Sakura turned to the two nurses standing in the room with them, telling them to constantly check on the new mother and to make sure she receives pain medication every four hours. She and Ino left the room, discarding their bloodied gloves in the trash as they walked to their offices-which were coincidentally right next to each other.

Ino broke the silence of their walk, "Don't you think it's odd how she knew you have a teammate named Sasuke?"

"I don't know if you knew this or not, but Sasuke , Naruto and I as a team are famous. We _are_ the_ new_ legendary sannin, you know." Sakura remarked, feigning cockiness.

"Hai, hai. But just think about it, have you ever seen her before?"

Sakura tilted her head in thought, ".. No."

"See! It's a bit suspicious,"

"Everything is suspicious to you today," Sakura joked, " I think Shikamaru's starting to rub off on you,"

"No he isn't!" Ino denied.

"Mhm, sure."

"I'm just saying, it's weird how she knows Sasuke without you knowing her, and she names her baby after Sasuke too."

This caused Sakura to think. _T__hat **is** a bit __suspicious_. _I wonder how she knows him..._

"See! You think it's weird too!"

Sakura shrugged, "I don't know Ino, maybe we're just over thinking here."

"Sakura!" Ino said in exasperation,"You have that big head for a reason, it was meant for over thinking and investigating things!"

"I'm not sure that's a good thing,"

"It is when you know when to use it,"

"Can we talk about something else? We've been talking about Sasuke way more than what's actually relevant."

"Fine. Well, continuing our conversation from earlier, Naruto wouldn't be scoping out at the hot springs. After last night, he'd be scoping out at the Hyuuga compund."

"So they finally got together?" Sakura asked.

"You should have seen how happy Hinata was last night. She was practically glowing after she danced with Naruto all night."

Pink eyebrows rose in surprise, "All night?"

"Yeah, even past the club's closing time. Naruto kept on asking the manager for more time and refused to leave when they wouldn't give it to him."

Sakura smiled, "Typical Naruto. I wish could have seen it, but I'm pretty sure I'll be seeing more of them anyways,"

"According to Hinata, he walked her home and gave her a kiss on her forehead. She was squealing as she was telling me about it, that cutie,"

Sakura crossed her arms and puffed her chest out proudly, "It's all because of me, it would have taken months for that ramen-loving idiot to get a move on, and poor Hinata's been waiting for so long already. I didn't want to torture her even more,"

"Preach it," Ino agreed.

Silence fell upon the two, before they suddenly burst out in unison, "Their babies will be _sooo_ cute!"

Sakura and Ino giggled as they walked into their separate offices to write a summary on Haruka, as they did with every patient. Sakura's eyes landed on the clock in her office, and she noticed that it was already lunch time. _The surgery lasted three hours? _Then she remembered that she had to perform a caesarian, that being the reason why the delivery took so little time. She placed the pen she was using on her desk before she stepped out of her office and into Ino's.

"Are you hungry? I'm about ready for my lunch break now," Sakura declared.

Ino's hand ceased to move and the pen was put down as she stood, "Yeah, I'm feeling a bit hungry too,"

Sakura found herself at the last restaurant Sai took her to. She and Ino were seated, and the waiter recognized Sakura.

"Ah, Sakura-san. Will you be having the same thing as last time?"

Sakura nodded her head, and Ino told the waiter her order.

Once the waiter left, Ino asked, "You've been here before?"

"Yeah, this was the last restaurant Sai took me to the night before he broke up with me,"

Panic struck Ino's face, "Oh, I'm sorry Sakura, I had no idea. Do you want to leave?"

"No, no, it's fine" Sakura reassured, "This place has good food anyways, so it'd be stupid of me not to stay,"

"If you say so... How are you after last night?"

"I'm fine, I'm actually not hurt by the breakup. I was a little hurt when he broke up with me, but that was mostly because he seemed to care about me, yet he just broke up with me without a single word after, and that was what hurt the most. And last night I was just mad that he was already with another girl, when he said he loved me. He lied. Now I know what a fake he is. He always was, like when I first met him and he had that fake smile of his. The thing was,_ before_, I could actually see through his curtain of lies. I don't know what happened."

"He's not worth the pain and headaches."

"That's a weird thing. Aside from the initial hurt and anger I had those nights, I don't feel anything when it comes to him. When he broke up with me, I got drunk, at right after that, I honestly didn't feel sad. I felt indifferent. Same with last night, after training, I no longer felt anything after getting it out of my system. That's weird right? I should still be hurting at least a tiny bit, but I'm not."

The waiter then returned with their food, and they continued to talk as they ate.

"That _is_ weird... Are you sure you actually had feelings for him?"

"I did..."

"The question is, how deep were your feelings for him?"

Sakura paused in thought, "I don't know.."

"Exactly, and there lies our problem. Maybe you really didn't have feelings for him that were as deep as you thought they were. It's not bad or weird, that was me with Sasuke in our academy and genin days."

"You're right," Sakura agreed.

They finished eating and returned to work having only four more hours left in their shift. In that time, Sakura went through three patients all of which were so rowdy that they each somewhat reminded her of Tsunade. One was an alcoholic, the other was always yelling, and the last was a gambler.

The alcoholic was a man that had such a bad addiction to alcohol that he even tried to suck all the alcohol out of the alcohol wipes used to disinfect wounds. Once they went into his room to give him lunch but the bed was empty. He was later found in another patients room asking them for their used wipes. Sakura thanked the heavens that her shishou was no where near _that_ addicted, but she was still an alcoholic nonetheless. Sakura wondered how Tsunade was able to run the village while being intoxicated, but decided that she must be doing something right if the village hasn't collapsed yet.

The other patient was an old woman around Tsunade's real age that just didn't seem to have the ability to lower her voice, no matter how many times Sakura asked her to. People who didn't know the situation at hand gave Sakura weird looks as she yelled into the old woman's ear without regard for her hearing, which was already practically done for.

The gambler was another old woman, constantly betting on things left and right. Sakura would just be giving her medicine and the woman would bet on how many pills she could swallow dry. Or she would bet on who would be the next person to walk into the room. Or on what meal she would receive that day. And if she won any of the bets, Sakura would owe her half of her next paycheck.

Thankfully, in the last hour of her shift, the old woman fell asleep due to the ingestion of painkillers. This specific type of painkiller had a side effect of drowsiness, Sakura had made sure of it. It had a dual purpose, ending both of their miseries for a few hours. The woman's pain and Sakura's throbbing headache.

The clock struck five and Sakura clocked out of the hospital, eager to go home and take a shower. Ino followed since the police department was close to her house, and she didn't want Sakura to walk home alone-even though she knew full well that Sakura was a woman who can handle herself. Truth be told, she mainly wanted to know what Sasuke's reaction to Sakura bringing him lunch would be. Upon arrival at the police department, Ino decided to wait outside for Sakura. Sakura walked into the police department with the bento, ignoring the odd looks she got from the people she passed. On the way to Sasuke's office, she ran into Kakashi. Kakashi looked the same as always, his grey hair fixed to one side, an eye covered by his forehead protector, and a worn out Icha Icha Paradise in his right hand.

"Yo," Kakashi waved before pointing at her hand, "Who's that for?"

"Ah, it's for Sasuke," she answered.

A single grey eyebrow raised, "For Sasuke?"

"It's a long story," Sakura scratched the back of her head.

"I'm willing to listen, if you're willing to talk about it,"

"Well, Sai broke up with me a few nights ago and I went and got drunk at a bar. Sasuke took me home, and even left me some medicine and tea to help with hangovers. Then, last night, I was out training in the rain and he stopped me and brought me home. I woke up this morning and it turns out he also bought me medicine and even stocked my fridge full of groceries. Plus he made me soup both times. This is just a little something to repay him,"

_Maybe I actually got through to_ _him, _Kakashi thought.

"And you're sure this is our Sasuke you're talking about?"

Sakura laughed, "I know, it's strange. But he won't tell me anything like usual so I decided to just go with it and pay him back."

"That's nice of you. It's nice to know that at least one of my subordinates has good manners."

"Arigatou, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura thanked him as she continued to Sasuke's office.

She reached Sasuke's office and knocked. After hearing a faint "come in" from the other side, she opened the door.

Sasuke was leaned back into his swivel chair reading a handful of documents, everything about him the same as she last saw him. Except for the clothes, of course. Sakura was inwardly grateful that he covered his chest up today, otherwise it would take a while before she would be able to convince herself to leave.

He looked up at her from his papers, "Sakura. What do you need?"

Sakura walked up to his desk and placed the bento in the middle of his oddly clean and organized desk.

"I brought you dinner. It's my thanks for all that you gave me."

Sasuke placed the papers down on his wooden desk and his hands brought the box closer to him. He opened the box and pulled out a single onigiri, taking a bite out of it. He chewed silently, satisfied with its familiar taste.

He looked at her and, noticing the eagerness in her eyes, commended her, "It's good,"

A look of relief flashed across Sakura's face, "I'll just be on my way home now,"

Sasuke nodded before realizing why the taste of the onigiri was familiar. It tasted_ exactly_ like his mothers onigiri.

Sakura was about to leave when Sasuke spoke, "Sakura."

She turned to look at him, and green eyes met with onyx.

"Thank you,"

A light blush stained Sakura's porcelain skin, "N-no problem," she stammered as she shut the door behind her.

* * *

Sakura and Ino had just gotten up the steps to her apartment when Sakura began to panic.

She rummaged through her bag, "I can't find it!"

"Are you sure? Try dumping everything out," Ino suggested.

Sakura emptied the contents of her bag onto the floor, frantically searching. Still not a single sign of her keys.

"It's not here, I _swear _that I put it in my bag though! I vividly remember getting my bag ready before you came, and I remember placing my keys in here."

"Relax, Sakura, we can just stop by the locksmith and he should have a copy of your key to open your apartment."

Sakura gathered up all the stuff she had just dumped onto the floor and put it in her bag once again, following Ino to the locksmith. She hadn't even known there was a locksmith in Konoha. _Thank God for Ino_, she thought as they jogged across town. _I can't wait to get a copy of my keys and just go to sleep._

They stopped after reaching a shack in the downtown area of Konoha. The roof was slightly dilapidated, the lights in it were off and a huge lock was on the door. Taped onto the door was a conspicuous sign that read, "Locksmith is out of town on vacation for two weeks. Come back soon!"

Sakura's hopes went crashing down as she read the sign over and over again, not believing the situation she was in. She lost her keys and the locksmith, the only person in town that would have a replica of her key, was out.

Ino cursed when she read the sign, "Shit. That means you'll be locked out of your house for two weeks. Maybe you could just break in?"

"I don't want to kick the door in or break the window because then I'd have to pay to get them replaced."

"Well... You can spend the nights with me and Shika. We wouldn't mind."

"Thanks Ino, but I don't want to intrude into your relationship. Plus I'd prefer to sleep at a house where I'm less likely to hear the sounds of people having sex," Sakura rejected her offer, "And that rules out Naruto and Hinata's houses as well... Same with TenTen and Lee..."

Sakura groaned when she realized who she'd have to spend the next two weeks with. The man who knocked her out after her declaration of love and left her unconscious on a bench. The one who she once tried to kill. The one who tried to kill her as well. Sasuke.

* * *

_**Please review if you liked it! Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it by the way!**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N: Hi everyone! Hope ya'll had a merry Christmas (if you celebrate it). Anyways, this is going to be a short chapter compared to the last one, just because I thought that if I extended it, the place I would end the chapter at would be a bit awkward. Don't worry though, next chapter will definitely be longer than this one. **_

**Disclaimer: ****As much as I would like to take them from him, a**ll characters belong to Kishimoto.

* * *

Sasuke listened to the door click shut as Sakura left him with her homemade onigiri. He took a tentative bite out of the piece still in his hand and chewed slowly, savoring its familiar taste. There were still a few more hours left in his shift and it would dishearten him if he finished all four pieces of onigiri before an hour had even passed. He rarely ever tried to actually savor his food, and the fact that Sakura's cooking was making him want to savor food surprised him. _Sakura seems to cook well_, recalled Sasuke, remembering the last few times he's had her cooking.

He briefly let his mind wander, wondering how it would be like to live with her-waking up to her pink hair and green eyes every morning, eating her cooking every now and then when he didn't cook, coming home to her. She was neat and well kept, so their house would never be messy.

The complete opposite of Naruto's. Sasuke suppressed a shudder. The place was crawling with insects, cups and bowls of ramen spread all around the premises. He inwardly hoped the Hyuuga heiress would straighten him out and rid him of his nasty habits.

He placed the half-eaten piece of onigiri back inside the box, now using his free hands to spread the papers neatly on his desk. Quick black eyes scanned through lists of people coming from other villages, of the ninjas available to be security that day and their skills in combat, of the performers and their village histories. His head began to throb dully and he pinched the bridge of his nose.

It usually took a lot for Sasuke to stress out. Being Naruto's best friend had instilled patience within him, a _lot_ of it. With someone so loud and boisterous, it took a lot of patience for him to restrain himself from smacking his best friend over the head at every sentence he uttered. Granted, Sasuke was able to deal with a lot. However, planning for the coronation of the new Hokage was beginning to prove stressful for him.

The dobe was finally going to become Hokage. And in little more than a week from now. Although the coronation was in exactly nine days, Sasuke was required to plan everything out with about two to three days to spare in case something needs adjusting. In less than a week he was to map out security all the while taking into consideration the elites coming for the celebration, the number of ninjas available to work that day along with their abilities and find distribute them around the village to provide maximum protection of the Hokage and his guests that day. To top it off, he had yet to formulate a plan to bring Sakura into his arms and fulfill his goal to rebuild the Uchiha clan.

Yet, for some reason, he couldn't seem to think. It was as if a thick fog was clouding his brain, preventing the sun from shining through and preventing him from coming up with a sufficient protection plan for each of the important guests and incorporating it into the protection plan for the entire village.

He let out a sigh as his office door swung open once again. Kakashi stepped in, and Sasuke thought he looked different for a second before realizing that his Icha Icha Paradise book was, oddly enough, missing from his hand.

"Yo, Sasuke," Kakashi greeted his former student from beside the door.

Sasuke replied, "Kakashi,"

"Sakura just brought you dinner,"

It wasn't a question, but Sasuke explained, "I just did her a few favors is all,"

"Oh I know, I just talked to her as she was about to go into her office,"

"Then what exactly are you trying to get at here, Kakashi?", Sasuke inquired irritably.

Kakashi moved to stand in front of him, "You usually don't _do_ favors. For you to bring Sakura home twice, buy her medicine and even take the liberty of filling her fridge up is very unlike you. What is your motive?"

"Hn. I am simply taking initiative like you told me to do, _sensei_. As you said, I need to get a move on before all the good women are taken, and I am simply in the process of taking the woman that I believe is best suited for bearing Uchihas,"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at this revelation," Is that all she is to you? A means to revive your clan? If so, Sasuke, then you won't get very far with Sakura."

"Tch. Wasn't that what you wanted me to do? To hurry up, find a woman and rebuild the clan? I am simply following your advice," Sasuke countered.

"I _did_ tell you that," Kakashi admitted, "However, we are talking about your teammate, _Sakura_, here. She wouldn't allow herself to be in a relationship where she isn't getting any affection or love in return. She had enough of that type of relationship from you when you two were in your genin days."

Sasuke didn't say anything, absorbing all that Kakashi had just said. He understood what Kakashi was saying, Sakura deserved someone who could give her the love and care she needed. She was no longer the girl who would go blindly rushing into a relationship, even if it was one-sided. No, she needed to be loved.

_Bingo_, Kakashi thought. He was about to mention how Sakura may not even harbor romantic feelings for the lone Uchiha, but he refrained himself. Knowing the boy, he would find a way to make Sakura's past affection for him reappear.

"I see that you're finally taking all this into consideration," Kakashi spoke as he opened the door.

"What she needs is love and care, not a man to bed her and impregnate her," He took a step out of the office, adding, "Even Sai was able to provide her with some of that affection while they were together,"

Grey hair disappeared behind the door, and for the second time that afternoon, Sasuke felt the throb of a headache coming to enslave him. Damn that Kakashi for always knowing how to make him think.

He couldn't love her. He just _couldn't_. He was no longer capable of loving anyone, not after what happened to his family. And his love weakened him, leaving him a pitiful shell of his former self. Love is _weakness_. Love is _bad_.

Sasuke then realized that Itachi did everything for love. His love for the village and for his ototo. Love, Sasuke realized, made people achieve incredible feats. Love made Naruto stronger. Love made Sakura stronger. Love could bring him Sakura. Love brought about the destruction of his clan, yet it could also restore it.

In that moment Sasuke decided. He decided that, as incapable of love as he was, he would _try_. He would try to love Sakura. He wasn't about to sacrifice the fate of his clan because of his inability and his reluctance to love. This is for the best. He had to try.

One hand reached out, grabbing the half-eaten onigiri. He placed the whole thing in his mouth, chewing as a relatively decent plan for security began to surface in his now clear mind.

Two hours and two pieces of onigiri later, Sasuke had successfully drawn out a draft of the map. He skimmed over it, making sure there were as little errors as possible before he brought it to Shikamaru. He planned to drop it off and return home as swiftly as possible. There was no particular reason why he felt anxious to go home all of a sudden, but he went along with it. He stood up. Quick hands cleaned off his desk, stacking his papers into a pile. He stuffed the last piece of onigiri in his mouth and quickly spooned the diced tomatoes into his mouth. The bento box his dinner was carried in was tucked in between his armpits, and he took the pile of papers with him as he exited his office.

Sasuke arrived at the Hokage's office, finding Shikamaru staring at the Hokage who was dozing softly. Saliva trailed down her chin and onto her loads of paperwork and a bottle of sake was still planted firmly in her hand.

Beady eyes settled on Sasuke, "Oi, Sasuke,"

Sasuke moved towards the genius with his hand extended, "Here's the mapping of security you asked for,"

"Arigatou," Shikamaru thanked him, returning his attention to the now snoring Hokage.

"Seems like you have a problem here," Sasuke inferred.

"Troublesome woman. I don't want to wake her; she's scary to wake up,"

"Aa," _I can imagine._

"Thankfully Naruto won't be like this,"

"Aa, but he'd be avoiding work at whatever chance he gets," Sasuke informed Shikamaru.

"I could never really imagine him sitting behind that desk and actually getting work done,"

"Neither could I," Sasuke agreed.

He moved away from Shikamaru and opened the door to leave, "Good luck with her, Shikamaru."

"Troublesome," Sasuke heard the genius sigh through the door.

Sasuke's soft chuckles echoed as he walked down the dark corridors of the Hokage building on his way home.

Sakura fisted her hair and let out an exasperated groan. She was going to have to sleep at Sasuke's house. Dread filled Sakura's entire being at the thought.

Ino, noticing the pink-haired kunoichi's sudden panic, asked, "What's wrong?"

Sakura lips set in a straight line as she replied stiffly, "I have no choice… but to sleep at Sasuke's."

Ino chewed on her bottom lip, thinking of other places for Sakura to sleep, "Are you sure you don't want to sleep with me and Shika?"

"I'm sure. I don't want to be scarred for life listening to that homemade pornography business you have running in your room," Sakura joked.

"We'll be quiet for you?" Ino offered.

Sakura shook her head.

"Well, what about Naruto?" Ino suggested.

They both paused for a second before, "No," they giggled in unison.

Naruto's would be the _last_ resort. Sakura shuddered. His apartment was so messy that he lived in conditions worse than a homeless person. At least homeless people kept their area neat. Naruto had an apartment that was full of junk strewn all over the place.

"You could ask Hinata, she'd let you sleep over,"

Sakura declined, "I'm… scared of Hiashi," she admitted hesitantly.

Ino giggled at this revelation, "Don't worry, I am too,"

"Maybe Shizune or Tsunade-sama would let you-"

"No," she interrupted, "They would let me stay, but I'd rather preserve my mental health than let it go down the drain listening to Shizune and shishou's yelling."

"I don't blame you," Ino sighed," I guess you really do have no choice then,"

"Yeah," Sakura agreed gloomily.

The fact that she wasn't going to be sleeping in the comfort of her own home tonight wasn't what bothered her the most. The fact that it was _Sasuke's_ house bothered her. She had some experience sleeping with Sasuke on the missions they had together, but she couldn't imagine sleeping at his house day in and day out.

She cringed at the thought of how awkward life would be living at Sasuke's. Waking up and eating breakfast, making dull small talk before going to work. Returning home from work then cleaning and cooking in silence. They would both go into their rooms at different times, muttering good night. Throughout the night it would be so quiet that one could hear the wings of birds fluttering outside.

It would be like sleeping in a cemetery.

Sakura immediately regretted that last thought, her dread of sleeping at Sasuke's house beginning to dissolve into guilt. _Sleeping at Sasuke's can't be that bad, and it's only for two weeks, _she tried to convince herself.

If anything, it must be worse for Sasuke. Living alone in that house, living in the same house that his worst nightmare occurred in. Her eyes softened,_ It might even be better for him if I do go, at least he won't be lonely_, she thought.

No longer dreading the thought of living at Sasuke's for two weeks, she announced, "We should stop by Sasuke's, he's probably home by now,"

Ino nodded her head, and they began their walk to Sasuke's house.

Sasuke wasn't one to be particularly religious. He didn't believe in a god or goddess like other did. However, in light of recent events, Sasuke began to question if there was a higher power somewhere out in the universe directing things in his favor. Since he began sleeping in his old house again, Sakura had coincidentally begun to appear more and more in his life.

So when he arrived home to see the pink-haired kunoichi on his doorstep, he decided that he should visit a shrine or temple sometime soon to thank (whoever) for their aid in his quest to court Sakura. Next to her stood Ino, who waved at him from afar.

He approached the two, taking note of the creases in Sakura's forehead that weren't there before.

"Sakura, Ino, do you need something?" he asked.

"Ano, I got locked out of my apartment and the locksmith won't be in the village for two weeks. Can I… live here in the mean time?"

This information took Sasuke by surprise. _This is perfect_. During this time they will be living together, and he could try to make her past affection for him resurface. The odds were definitely in his favor. He made a mental note to visit a temple sometime that week.

"Fine, there's a guest room you can use," he answered plainly, keeping his emotionless mask on.

"Arigatou," she thanked him before turning to Ino, "Goodnight Ino-pig,"

Ino waved as she walked away, "Goodnight forehead."

Sasuke turned around and opened the door, letting Sakura in. Her hands pulled her shoes off, discarding them neatly near the doorway. He turned a corner and walked down a hallway, with Sakura scurrying along behind him.

She looked around as she followed, realizing that not a single thing had changed since she last saw it. He stopped at a door and opened it. _Oh, **this** room_, Sakura thought, remembering the room from when she used to clean the house. While he was with Orochimaru, she came by every day to look after the house. She would dust the cabinets, scrub the floors and wash the clothes that were left.

The first time she came by to see the house herself, she was horrified. Whoever had been there before her tried to clean up as much blood as possible, but did a horrible job of doing so. Blood splotches were still found scattered around the house. In the master bedroom, slashes of blood were on the walls, and a pool of the scarlet gore on the floor. Hot tears would fall from her eyes as she scrubbed each and every blood stain clean, trying to eradicate all marks of the horrible massacre. But Sasuke didn't know that. He didn't need to. Not that he'd care anyways.

"This is the room you'll be staying in," he told her before disappearing.

He appeared again beside her, holding a dark blue nightgown made of silk with the Uchiha crest imprinted on the back. Sakura remembered the nightgown from washing it in the past. It was her favorite nightgown out of Mikoto's collection.

"You can use this until you get more clothes,"

She accepted the clothing,"Ah.. Arigatou,"

Sasuke stood awkwardly at the doorway before finally muttering, "Goodnight,"

"Goodnight," she replied.

With that he nodded and left, leaving Sakura to change and go to sleep. She pulled off her shirt and skirt, replacing the two with the nightgown. The silk settled upon her skin, and Sakura ran her hands across it, relishing in the softness of the material. She turned the light off, padded towards the bed and shook off the covers, cleaning it of dust. She then laid down, cocooning herself in the blankets.

Sakura laid there in bed, listening to the sounds of the night. A slight breeze whistled past the house, rustling the leaves of trees surrounding it. _The quiet isn't so bad_, Sakura realized, _peaceful, even_. And maybe, just maybe, living with the stoic Uchiha for two weeks wouldn't be as awkward and quiet as she had feared. Her eyes closed, allowing the fatigue and stress built up from today to envelop her as her consciousness slowly began to fade. The last thought on her mind being, _this place might not be so bad, after all._

* * *

**_Hope you enjoyed! Please review if you did! Also, happy new years! See you next year!_**


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: Hi everyone! Happy New Years! I hope you all had a great time and will hopefully stick to your resolutions! Anyways, here's the new chapter! Enjoy!  
**_

_**Sorry this is late, by the way. Every time I clicked to add another chapter, a page saying something about an error would pop up.**_

**Disclaimer: ****As much as I would like to take them from him, a**ll characters belong to Kishimoto.

* * *

Sasuke's eyes fluttered open at the sound of his front door closing. His eyes narrowed and he soundlessly maneuvered himself out of bed. He slid open his door and cautiously walked out of his room. Thinking he had an intruder, he activated his sharingan and took a defensive stance as he inspected room by room.

Sasuke approached his kitchen, confusion splayed on his face as the smell of food met his nose. Hands pushed open the door, and he stepped into the kitchen. A plate lay in the middle of the dining table, and on the plate was an omelet with tomatoes. Next to it was a note that read, "A sign of my gratitude,", triggering Sasuke to remember that Sakura had spent the night and will continue to do so for the next two weeks. He placed a hand over his face as he chuckled to himself, finding it comical how he walked around the house and checked every single room thinking that he had an intruder. He pulled out a chair and sat down. Chuckles continued to erupt from him as he ate the delicious omelet. As if someone uncalled for could sneak into his house under his watch.

"Oi, teme!", Naruto yelled behind Sasuke.

Sasuke, moving at the speed of light, stood up from his chair, pinned Naruto down to the table and pressed a kunai against his throat.

"Hey, w-what are y-you doing? Have you gone crazy, teme?" Naruto croaked out in surprise, staring at Sasuke's blaring crimson eyes.

Realizing that it was Naruto, Sasuke released him and placed the kunai down on the table.

"Next time, don't sneak up on me like that unless you _want_ to die." Sasuke warned as he sat back down to finish his breakfast.

Naruto nodded his head, coughing all the while.

"What are you doing here, and how did you get in?" asked Sasuke.

"Sakura-chan let me in as she was leaving. I was trying to sneak up on you sleeping, but when I went into your room you were gone." Naruto explained.

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed together as he processed what he just said, "Wait a second. Why was she here?" his eyes widened and the volume of his voice rose, "You didn't take advantage of her, did you?"

Sasuke spooned the rest of his omelet into his mouth before replying, "Hn. She got locked out of her apartment and the locksmith is out of the village for two weeks."

Naruto calmed down, replying with a quiet, "Oh."

Sasuke briefly wondered if he should tell the blonde about his coronation before he spoke, "You still didn't answer my question usuratonkatchi. What are you doing here?"

"Ah, Konohamaru wants us to train with him. Maybe you can teach him that big ass fire ball."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as Naruto referred to his katon gokakyu no jutsu as a big ass fire ball. Tch. Just for that, he pushed off his plans to tell the dobe about his coronation as the new Hokage until later on.

"Aa,"

"I'll meet you at the training grounds," Naruto called as he ran out the door.

Sasuke stood up from the table and walked to his room. A few minutes later, Sasuke stepped out of his room wearing a long black-sleeved shirt with the Uchiha crest marked upon his right shoulder and matching loose black pants.

He looked at the Uchiha emblem, and slight disappointment washed over him. It was a shame he didn't wake up earlier, really. He had looked forward to seeing Sakura wear the clan emblem, but had missed the chance. Sasuke shrugged, she would be wearing the emblem on her back sooner or later anyways.

The door shut behind him as he jogged through the shining sun to the training grounds. He instantly regretted wearing all black in this weather. As the training grounds came into view, he could see the blonde idiot and Konohamaru.

"He actually came!" Konohamaru mocked, surprised that the Uchiha hadn't stayed home and isolated himself like usual.

"Of course! If he refused I would've beat him into a pulp and brought him!" Naruto boasted in reply.

"Hn. Yeah, right. Who was defeated at the Valley of the End?"

"Who defeated Madara?"

"Tch. You had _my _help."

"Can we start my training now?" Konohamaru whined.

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged glances before they both barreled towards Konohamaru. He yelped, being caught off guard. Naruto's fist grazed his cheek as he moved his head away, barely dodging the punch. Something made contact with Konohamaru's legs, knocking him onto his butt. Sasuke loomed over him, and he realized that he was just sweep kicked to the ground.

"You're going to have to do better than that," Sasuke challenged as he backed away.

Konohamaru let out a yell of frustration as he got up and charged towards Sasuke. His hands quickly formed seals, and in a matter of seconds, a clone appeared next to him. The clone dashed forward and tried to distract Sasuke with an assault of punches, most of which were easily dodged.

Sasuke struck the clone, and it dispersed in a cloud of smoke. Naruto appeared next to Sasuke and tried to kick the clone the second after Sasuke struck it, but his foot fell through the smoke and he ended up kicking Sasuke instead.

The Uchiha fell to the floor, causing Konohamaru to burst into laughter.

"I thought you were better than that, Sasuke?" the younger version of Naruto taunted.

Sasuke glared at Naruto, giving off one of the deadliest glares in Uchiha history.

"You idiot," he growled.

"It's not my fault you let yourself get kicked!"

"Oh my, it looks like the lovers are fighting," Sai drawled as he drew nearer towards the three.

All three heads turned in Sai's direction. Sasuke scowled, while Naruto rolled his eyes. They were both getting tired of Sai's constant banter that the two secretly desired each other and did the do in private.

"Well, you might as well engage in a few more sessions of copulation. After all, the event occurring next week will most likely have women lined up for Naruto to choose from,"

Bewilderment filled Naruto's eyes as he asked, "What event?"

Sasuke sighed. That damn Sai. He was planning to tell Naruto later, but as the situation stood, he had no choice but to tell the dobe now.

"Next week is your coronation as the new Hokage," Sasuke told him.

"It's about time Tsunade no baa-chan lets me take over," Naruto said plainly, trying to mask his excitement.

"So like I said, once you become Hokage, women will be lined up wanting you. Too bad you don't have a dick,"

"Yes I do!" Naruto huffed, adding, "And I don't want any of those women. I already have one, anyways,"

Sasuke blinked. Did he hear Naruto right? That blonde idiot had landed himself in a relationship before him?

"Oh? Are you sure she isn't one of those girls that have a dick?"

"Hinata does not have a dick." Naruto answered firmly, crossing his arms over his chest. How dare he accuse her of having a dick? The bastard.

"What a disappointment. You could have used hers for when you and Traitor are engaging in coitus since you don't have a-."

Okay, that was it. Enough was enough. Sasuke was done listening to Sai's irrelevant and sick ramblings.

Sasuke interrupted Sai, "Naruto. You have to come up with a speech for the coronation. You have three days to write and hand it in to me, I'll revise it and hand it back for you to memorize."

"Hai, hai," Naruto droned. All this work was killing his happiness of finally becoming Hokage.

Sai turned to Sasuke, "So, Traitor, what are you going to do now that Naruto is taken? I doubt any women desire you. How unfortunate, now your genitals are going to shrivel up and die due to underuse. If you have any, that is."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and for the second time that day, he broke the record for the Uchiha's deadliest glares. Sai had gone too far.

"Then we are both in the exact same predicament, aren't we?", Sasuke snapped, " I question the existence of women's desire for you and I question the existence of your genitals as well."

Sai was momentarily stunned. The most he ever got back from his crude commentary was a glare. For Uchiha Sasuke to actually snap back at him was something he had never encountered before.

Curious as to how far he could push the Uchiha, he replied, "You can ask Sakura about that."

"Ne, ne, you two should stop. This is going too far. Sakura wouldn't want you two fighting like this," Naruto intervened, trying to stop the conversation before Sai was murdered by Sasuke.

"No, I think she's fine with us fighting. It's just _you_ that she doesn't like," Sai countered, directing the "_you"_ towards Sasuke.

Sasuke spoke, restraining himself from striking a chidori through the metro-sexual man's exposed stomach, "Hn. She doesn't like you either."

"Ah, that may be true, but I am on a better standing with her than you. At least _I_ didn't attempt to kill her."

That was the last straw. Sasuke stood up so quickly that he was dizzy. His right hand glowed a bright blue, and the sound of a thousand birds chirping filled the air. He lunged for Sai, but was unable to reach the bastard when Naruto managed to trip him. He fell for the second time that day, and was instantly restrained by Naruto.

_Oh my, _**someone's**_ touchy when it comes to Sakura._ Sai observed with interest.

"Sasuke, calm down." The blonde advised his best friend, " I wanna kick his ass too but Sakura-chan will kill us both if we do."

At the mention of Sakura, Sasuke calmed down. Sensing this, Naruto released him before dragging him away.

"Asshole," Naruto muttered to Sai as the two passed him.

"N-naruto! What about my training?!" Konohamaru whined.

"We'll continue it some other time, I promise." Naruto reassured him before taking off with Sasuke.

* * *

"You haven't told Sakura-chan about my coronation yet, have you?" Naruto asked.

"No," Sasuke answered.

"Perfect! We can go visit her and tell her the news!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

"Aa." Sasuke agreed.

In his case, it would be perfect as well because he could pick Sakura up from work. He had forgotten to give her the spare key to the house last night, and she could have been locked out-again. Although Sasuke could have fatally wounded the ninja, it was a good thing Sai came by and pissed him off, causing him to leave.

"Ne, Sasuke, could we go out for ramen before we pick Sakura-chan up from work? I'm hungry, and her shift doesn't end for another hour. Plus, Hinata is going to start making me food because she doesn't approve of me eating ramen all the time. This could be the last time I'm eating ramen for a while." Naruto implored as the two approached Ichiraku.

Sasuke's stomach lurched at the thought of eating another bowl of Ichiraku ramen. He had only been back home for a few months and he was already sick of the stuff. He wondered how Naruto could eat it so often without getting tired of it.

"You're paying." Sasuke answered.

"HUH? Me? Demo, teme, I'm about to become the Hokage! It would be disrespectful of you to make the Hokage pay for his own food." Naruto wailed.

"Hn. You're still paying."

Naruto rushed in front of Sasuke, halting Sasuke's walk. He clasped both hands together, stuck his lips out to form a pout and batted his eyelashes at Sasuke as he pleaded, "But Sasukee! Pleaseeee?"

Sasuke almost barfed at the sight in front of him. Not wanting to endure anymore of this torture, Sasuke gave in.

"Fine. But, this is the last time."

The soon-to-be Hokage squealed in delight as he happily jumped up and down. He then took off, sprinting twenty feet into his favorite restaurant.

"Ojiisan! Five bowls of tonkatsu ramen for the to-be Hokage please!"

Teuchi smiled at his favorite customer, "Oh, you're finally becoming Hokage now?"

Naruto puffed out his chest proudly as he replied, "Of course!"

"Congratulations Naruto-kun," Ayame congratulated the boy.

"Alright! For the new Hokage, you get your ramen half off!"

"Ohhh!" Naruto smiled happily,"Arigatou ojiisan!"

"Anything for my favorite customer!," Teuchi replied as he set Naruto's first bowl down on the table.

As Naruto devoured each and every bowl that Teuchi placed on the table, Sasuke couldn't help but feel unsettled about what Sai had said. Although Sasuke knew that it would be unwise of him to believe Sai, the thought that he, a former teammate and love of Sakura, was thought of in lower regards than Sai discomforted him greatly.

He knew he had hurt her emotionally when he attempted to kill her, but he didn't think she was still hurt from it. Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. He had already apologized to her for his actions as soon as they returned to the village from the war, so why was he ranked under Sai in her book? Sasuke's eyes widened in panic. If he was less favorable than Sai, how was he going to court her?

Naruto, already having finished all five bowls of ramen, let out a long and loud belch before he turned to look at Sasuke. He opened his mouth to tell Sasuke that it was time for him to pay, but closed it as he examined the man's facial expression. His furrowed eyebrows depicted confusion, whereas his eyes portrayed panic and insecurity-a look that Naruto knew all too well. Naruto sighed. Sai had gotten to him.

"Sasuke. Don't listen to Sai," Naruto advised, "He's just trying to mess with your head since he and Sakura aren't together anymore. No one can say which of you two Sakura likes more besides the actual woman herself. "

Sasuke's facial features relaxed as he processed what his best friend had just told him. He really was over-thinking this all. If she really did dislike him more than Sai, she would not have brought him lunch. She would not have come to him when she needed a place to stay.

Noticing the way Sasuke seemed to calm down, Naruto proceeded to tell him, "It's time for you to pay the bill now,"

Sasuke took out his wallet and handed the old man the money. Both he and Naruto walked out of Ichiraku, Naruto patting his now now protruding stomach.

"Arigatou, Sasuke"

"Aa."

"Off to see Sakura-chan!" Naruto declared as the two headed in the direction of the hospital.

* * *

Ino pumped chakra into the fatally wounded man under her hands, "So, how was it like sleeping in the same house as the man who tried to kill you? Did he attempt to do it again this time?" she asked Sakura jokingly.

"We're losing him!" The medical assistant watching the heart rate monitor announced.

"Ino," Sakura laughed as she began to do chest compressions on their patient, "You know he already apologized for that-and no, he didn't try anything."

"Good. What did you wear to sleep? Don't tell me you slept in your undies!" Ino asked, no longer pumping chakra into the patient now that Sakura had taken over with chest compressions.

Sweat beaded on Sakura's forehead as she continued to push down on the man's chest. Poor man, this one. He had fallen from the Hokage mountains as he was examining it. _What a plunge that must have been, _Sakura thought. The poor man came in with a broken spine and several broken ribs. _What was he even examining it for? _She questioned. They usually only do that when they're planning to add another face to the mountains. _Maybe, could they be adding Naruto's face?_

She pushed. One. Another push. Two. She heaved. Three.

The heart rate monitor then began to settle into a continuous rhythm.

"All good," The same medical assistant announced.

Sakura exhaled deeply in relief before she walked over to the nurses.

"Make sure he is heavily medicated with vicoden every 5-6 hours. If, in between that time period, the patient starts to feel pain again, go ahead and shorten the interval to every 4-5 hours." she ordered.

She dropped her gloves into the trash and met Ino outside of the patients room.

She continued the conversation as she began to walk to her office with Ino following right next to her.

"Only weirdos like you sleep in their undergarments, Ino. And Sasuke let me sleep in one of Mikoto-san's night-gowns."

"I am not weird! Sometimes it gets hot at night and the rest of the time Shikamaru prefers less clothing to strip off of me. And oh my _gosh_. He really let you wear one of his mother's night-gowns?"

"Don't you mean that it's _always_ hot and Shikamaru is _always _stripping off what little clothes you ever have on?" Sakura joked, "And, to answer your question, Sasuke, indeed, let me use his mothers night gown. It was my favorite one too."

"You may have thought you were joking but you are absolutely right," Ino laughed, "You had a favorite night-gown out of a collection that wasn't even yours?"

"When you phrase it like that, it sounds creepy. I just happened to stumble across it when I did their laundry, is all."

"But how do you remember it? You must have seen it more than once to remember it."

Sakura opened the door to her office and stepped in, "Well I _was_ the person who cleaned up the crime scene and continued to clean the house and everything in it long after. _Of course_ I remember it."

Ino shut the door behind her and took a seat on a corner of Sakura's desk, "So do you know everything about the place? Like which room is who's and who's clothes go where?"

"Yup. All of it." Sakura admitted as she began to write about the patient they just had on a piece of paper.

"Wow, you might as well just live there for the rest of your life if you know it that well."

"_Sure_," Sakura agreed sarcastically, not looking up from her paper, " _I'll ask Sasuke if we can get married and I can bear his children_"

"Don't act like it's not possible!" Ino told Sakura.

"It's really not, because I highly doubt he feels anything for me, and I no longer harbor any romantic feelings for him."

"Really now? The girl that used to love him is gone?" Ino asked skeptically, " I don't think so. There has to be some part of you that feels something for him."

"Nope." Sakura shook her head.

"Then you're in denial. You never stop loving someone completely," Ino told Sakura, "Just look at Tsunade-sama. She still isn't over Dan."

Sakura placed her pen down and looked at Ino, "That's a different situation,"

"Ah, but love is love, all the same," Ino cooed.

Sakura shook her head, "Mou, Ino-pig. As far as I know, I don't have any romantic feelings towards Sasuke. I care about him, yes. But it doesn't go any further than that. I already learned my lesson."

"Sakura..." Ino started but was interrupted as the door exploded open, revealing a sweaty and bloated Naruto followed by an expressionless-as-usual Sasuke.

"Sakura-chan!"

"Don't you know that you should knock before coming in?" She asked, slightly irritated that he kept on barging into her conversations, " You never know what you might walk in on. I'm just glad you haven't walked in on me naked."

"Sorry, next time I'll knock, I promise." Naruto assured her as he plopped down on a chair while Sasuke made do with leaning against the doorframe.

"You better. What are you two here for?"

Naruto's blue eyes shined like stars as he spoke, "We have news to tell you!"

Sakura didn't say a thing, waiting for Naruto to get on with it already.

"My coronations for Hokage is in a week!" He squealed like a little girl.

_I** knew **it! _Thought Sakura.

"Congratulations!" both Ino and Sakura shrieked as they stood and went over to give him a hug.

"You finally made it," Murmured Sakura proudly against Naruto's shoulder.

"I know, It's finally here." Naruto replied.

He allowed the two to be taken in his arms, but only for a short period of time. He didn't believe that Hinata would get jealous because he hugged Ino and Sakura, but he didn't want to take the chance. Hinata's angry side had yet to be revealed to him.

He separated quickly, saying "I can't hug for too long now that I'm taken, Hinata might get mad."

Sakura smiled at him, "Knowing Hinata, I doubt she'd get jealous of _us_ hugging you, but I understand."

"So," Ino prompted, "Do you plan to celebrate before the coronation?"

"I don't think so," Naruto answered, "I still have to come up with a speech and hand it in to Sasuke."

Ino tilted her head to the side,"When do you have to hand it in by?"

Naruto frowned, "I don't remember. How many days do I have again Sasuke?"

"Three days." Sasuke replied lazily, slight irritation laced in his voice. Ino was distracting Naruto from getting his work done on time.

Ino clasped her hands together, "Perfect! We can throw a celebration party for the new Hokage!"

"But the coronation and the festival after is already the celebration," Sakura commented.

"Yeah, a celebration for the whole village. This will be just between all of us in our group. Our Konoha twelve."

Ino paused in thought and tapped on her chin lightly, "But where would we have it?"

"No one has a house big enough for all of us except for Hinata and Sasuke." Naruto spoke, having been to both houses.

"Hiashi wouldn't permit us having a party there," Sakura divulged. Realizing what she just did, she panicked and glanced at Sasuke, who looked at her with an expression that read,"what are you doing?". But it was too late.

"You're right, he wouldn't." Ino turned to Sasuke, and looked at him expectantly. She seemed as if she was about to say something, but couldn't bring herself to bring herself to speak.

Instead, Naruto spoke, once again imitating a begging dog all the while, "Ne, Sasuke. Can we have the celebration at your house? Pleeeeaasee?"

Sasuke groaned inwardly. He _really_ didn't want to have eleven other people at his house tomorrow. Really. These next two weeks at home were supposed to be for spending time with and courting Sakura, but he would definitely be unable to do so if others were around.

He glanced at Sakura, who nodded at him. For a second he was confused, wondering what she was saying yes to. He then realized that she was telling him to allow the party to take place at his house. Still, Sasuke opened his mouth to reject the party before he realized that, if he didn't listen to Sakura, he'd be even worse than Sai. To hell with everything.

"Fine," he sighed, already regretting the decision he's made.

"Yay! I am _so_ going to spread the news once the shift ends in five minutes. What time should people start to come over?" Ino questioned

"Around 5," Sakura answered in Sasuke's place.

Naruto looked at Sasuke with eyes widened to the point where even a tiny little breeze passing by could make him cry. His mouth hung low and open, threatening to catch flies-if Sakura permitted the annoying creatures to buzz around in her office. Never in a million years would he have expected Sasuke to agree to having a party at his own house. _Hell must be freezing over_, Naruto thought.

Noticing Naruto's obviously confused and surprised expression, Sasuke asked, "What's wrong with your face?"

"Nothing. I'm just surprised that you actually agreed to this,"

"Hn. You all better not trash the house tomorrow."

Naruto and Ino nodded. They didn't need to be told twice. Actually, they really didn't even need to be told the first time. Not a single person in Konoha twelve would dare to litter in Sasuke's house.

Knowing their shifts were about to end, both Ino and Sakura moved to grab their bags. Sakura slung her bag over her shoulder and walked over to Sasuke.

"Are we going now?"

"Aa,"

"See you all tomorrow!" Sakura waved as Ino and Naruto walked out of her office.

As soon as the silhouettes of the blondes were no longer visible, Sasuke turned to Sakura.

"So why exactly did you tell me to allow this party to be held at the house?" He inquired as they pushed through the hospital doors open and stepped out..

"I just thought it would be fun, since we all have kinda gone our separate ways since the war. It'd be nice to have a little reunion. Plus, this is all for Naruto becoming Hokage. But don't worry, I'l cook the food and clean everything after the party to make it less of a burden on you." Sakura explained as she walked.

"Arigatou," he thanked her.

"No problem," she smiled so brightly that her smile mirrored the brightness of the moon.

The two walked in a comfortable silence all the way home, soaking up the moonlight.

Sasuke stuck his hand out and unlocked the door using his key. He then turned to Sakura and placed a a glinting piece of silver in the palm of her hand.

"So you don't get locked out of _my _house either," he told her.

"Oh yeah," she laughed, "I could have been locked out if you hadn't come."

He nodded before opening the door and stepping inside.

"I'm going to shower and sleep," she told Sasuke as she immediately headed for the bathroom.

Thankfully, Ino had given her some undergarments for her to wear until she could stop by the market to buy new ones. Because of this, she could _finally _shower, which was Sakura's favorite part about coming home from work. She turned on the shower-head and stripped her clothes off prior to stepping into the shower and letting the warm water rinse her body clean of any bacteria that could have accumulated whilst she was at work.

Minutes later, she opened the bathroom door and quickly tip-toed into her room. When she was finally in her room, she let out a breath of relief that Sasuke hadn't seen her. She had forgotten to grab a towel prior to showering. Oh yeah. She had just walked around Sasuke's house naked.

She quickly put her pajamas on and laid in bed, not caring that her hair was still wet. She had a lot to do tomorrow for the party, meaning she had to wake up early in order to accomplish all she had to do on time. So much planning was to be done, and no time could be wasted on waiting for her hair to dry.

The cold air mixed with her wet hair caused her to feel cold, to which she responded by cocooning herself in the blankets once again. After a few minutes, she no longer felt cold and was beginning to feel sleepy. She yawned and closed her eyes. Before Sakura fell asleep, thoughts of the upcoming day ahead lingered in her mind. _Sasuke plus a party? _She giggled. _This should be interesting._

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**_Please review!_**


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